[ UH VOLLEYBALL ]

Warriors expect to see
Northridge’s real deal

CSU Northridge at Hawaii When: Tonight: 7 p.m. Where: Stan Sheriff Center Radio: Live, KKEA 1420-AM. TV: Live, KFVE (Ch. 5). Tickets: $3-$12.

Of all the skills the Hawaii men's volleyball team worked on yesterday, the most important one could not be charted on the big board coach Mike Wilton wheels out for every practice.

It wasn't serving efficiency percentages, nor was it points scored per service rotation.

Yesterday, the Warriors worked on their mental game in preparation for tonight's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation rematch with Cal State Northridge. No. 4 Hawaii (3-1, 1-0) swept the sixth-ranked Matadors (3-3, 1-2) on Wednesday in 96 minutes, helped in part by Northridge's problems at the service line (21 errors in 73 attempts).

"I'm sure they didn't mean to miss that many serves," UH sophomore middle Dio Dante said. "Sometimes the arena really psyches people out. They think they have more space than they do. A lot of their serves went long.

"I'm sure they're not happy with what happened. They're a good team and they had a bad game. The thing we need to work on most is underestimation.

"We cannot underestimate them."

The Matadors' defensive plan on Wednesday perhaps overestimated Hawaii's use of its middle blockers when doing a lot of commit-blocking on the middles. The Warriors' two middles -- Dante and Mauli'a La Barre -- combined for 14 attempts.

Conversely, the Warrior outside hitters had the majority of the swings: Pedro Azenha had 28 and Matt Bender and Jose Delgado 23 each.

"I don't know if the number of times we set our middles warrant another team's paying that much attention to them, but that's been Northridge's defensive game plan over the years," Wilton said. "The plan is if there is a good pass, jump on the middles.

"Brian (UH sophomore setter Beckwith) knew that and the deal was that, wherever he was on the net, to set the long ball (to the opposite side) because it's hard for them (the opposing blockers) to get out there. That's the reason our middles didn't get that many sets, but we will get them the ball more."

It will be no surprise if Northridge continues to set the middle. The Matadors rely heavily on junior All-American Brian Waite, whom Wilton says is the best middle he's seen in a long time.

Waite had one of his poorest outings Wednesday, with just 10 kills, hitting .238, and committing eight errors on 10 serve attempts. The 6-foot-6 Waite came into the match averaging nearly four kills a game, hitting .519 and making just 20 serving errors in five matches.

Adding to Northridge's woes were injuries to junior hitter Cary Hanson, whom Matador coach Jeff Campbell called his best player, and sophomore opposite Dan Rhodes. Rhodes put down 10 kills, but hit .190 while playing with an injured hitting hand; Hanson (sprained elbow) likely won't see the court tonight.

The Matadors will also be without starting sophomore libero Sebastian Pedraza. The Colombian national was scheduled to return to Florida to continue the process of becoming a U.S. citizen.

Northridge's other libero is sophomore Matt Levoe, who served twice in Wednesday's match.

The Matadors, who have had to replace four starters from last season, used both of their setters Wednesday: Senior Jeff Conover started and was replaced by freshman Travis Bluemling in Game 3.

"We have a lot of new guys," Campbell said. "It's not that all of them are young, they just haven't played much before. They're still learning about playing with the pressure, playing here for the first time."

Wilton would like to get another victory before the team leaves on its first road trip to UC Irvine next week.

"We still need to work on things and I'd like to see us get our hitting percentage up a little," he said of the .278 on Wednesday. "And I'm hopeful our guys realize that Northridge did not play very well and that we'll see the real deal (tonight)."