Warriors get week to work
on volleyball’s fundamentals

It sounds like Anatomy 101: the knee bone is connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bone is connected to the hip bone ...

Only in Warrior Volleyball 2005, it's the pass that is connected to the set and the set is connect to the kill.

If Hawaii is going to make a stand this season, it's these connections that will be critical to improving on last year's disappointing 17-12 finish.

There are 11 returning players who are motivated to get past the first round of the NCAA tournament. Last May, the Warriors watched as BYU won the national title at the Stan Sheriff Center and "that's part of the fuel for us," sophomore setter Brian Beckwith said. "Everyone came back ready to work hard and build on what we had in the preseason.

"We wanted to work on things that led to our demise, one of which was ball control. We want to prove that last year was a fluke. We're hungry and ready this year."

First up on the menu are this week's exhibitions with Alberta, the top-ranked Canadian college team. The Golden Bears are 9-1 in conference and 16-2 overall, with both losses coming in five games.

Alberta is already 4-0 against U.S. college teams, sweeping Cal State Northridge and defending NCAA champion BYU, as well as picking up 3-1 victories over Pepperdine and Long Beach State.

"Alberta is very good," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "I wanted us to play somebody before the Outrigger (next week's Outrigger Hotels Invitational). This is an enhanced practice week for us. We get in some practices as well as some exhibition games. This will be good for us."

The Bears will present a big challenge -- literally -- for Hawaii. Alberta features a pair of 6-foot-9 middles in Adam Kaminski, who leads the team in blocks (1.29) and is hitting .477, and Leo Carroll, recently of the Canadian national team.

Setter Brock Davidiuk has the team hitting .356 with five players averaging 2.18 kills or better. Leading the way is 6-5 hitter Nicholas Cundy (3.0 kpg) and 6-7 hitter Jeremy King (2.39 kpg).

Also in the mix is 6-8 left-handed opposite Dallas Soonias.

Hawaii's lineup is not yet set, with a number of starting slots up for grabs. Missing from yesterday's practice was senior All-American Delano Thomas, whose flight from the mainland was delayed.

Thomas was academically ineligible last semester but did practice with the team. Wilton said he could not comment on specifics due to privacy laws but did say Thomas would not be eligible for this week's matches.

"At the moment, he is not a factor for us," Wilton said. "For sure, we'd like to have him back. He is the best middle in the country, but we don't know yet."

Two players who are back and expected to be factors are junior hitter Pedro Azenha and sophomore middle Dio Dante. The two were suspended from the fall matches with Pacific for breaking unspecified team rules and are working their way back into the lineup.

If the Warriors were to play tonight, Beckwith would get the nod at setter. But Wilton said senior Daniel Rasay has one more practice to change that.

Penciled in as middles are junior Maulia LaBarre and freshman transfer Jake Schkud with junior Jose Delgado and newcomer Lauri Hakala as hitters. Junior Matt Carere is scheduled to start at opposite and, as of yesterday, sophomore Eric Kalima had beat out last year's starter Alfred Reft at libero.

"There's a lot of talent at a lot of positions," LaBarre said. "The team looks great all the way around. Everybody is making everybody else play better. We're pushing each other as we go along.

"This year, we're playing really well as a team. It's very team oriented and everyone is playing well defensively."

Defense and serve-receive are keys to making the offense run.

"Ball control sets the stage for everything," Wilton said, "and we definitely will be a better ball-control team this year.

"This is one of those teams that is so interdependent on each other. There's not going to be one guy who we can say is the man."

The exhibitions are tune-ups for next week's Invitational which includes three of last year's final four participants: BYU, Penn State and Lewis.

Hawaii's home schedule also includes Cal State Northridge, Stanford, Southern California, Pepperdine, Ball State, UC Santa Barbara and Pacific.

The road trips will be at UC Irvine, final four host UCLA, BYU, UC San Diego and Long Beach State.

"We'll never get dinged on strength of schedule," Wilton said.