National ‘academy’
honors UH's Bender

The Warriors' junior outside
hitter is named college volleyball's
player of the week

Yesterday's atmosphere at the Stan Sheriff Center was more like an Academy Awards hana hou show. The nominees were "The Aviator" (aka Matt Bender) and "The Incredibles" (aka the Hawaii Warriors volleyball team).

Both came into practice as co-winners, with Bender's entrance accompanied by a loud announcement of "Here he is, the national player of the week" by student-assistant Jake Muise.

Pepperdine at Hawaii When: Tomorrow and Friday, 7 p.m. Radio: None. TV: Both matches live, KFVE (Ch. 5). Tickets: $3-12 tomorrow, $3-11 Friday. Note: Admission is free for UH students and children high school-age and younger wearing green shirts.

Bender, the 6-foot-1 junior outside hitter, earned the national honor after helping the Warriors to a split last week against top-ranked UCLA in Los Angeles. He averaged 4.57 kills, 1.29 blocks and 1.43 digs in the seven games, and was nearly unstoppable in Saturday's sweep of the Bruins.

In the 3-0 victory -- the first for the Warriors in 25 matches at Pauley Pavilion -- Bender had 16 kills with one error in 24 swings, hitting .625. He became the first Hawaii player to win national weekly honors this season, and the 14th overall.

Yesterday, Bender thanked his teammates in his acceptance speech, but particularly his setter, Brian Beckwith.

"Brian's sets were perfect," Bender said. "Most of my errors the first night (four in 34 sets on Friday) happened because I was late on the pipe set (behind the 3-meter line), I wasn't ready for it.

"Saturday, Brian told me, 'Be ready. I'm going to set you.' The passing was great, the sets were perfect ... everybody's kept asking me how I felt. It was really easy for me because everyone else was playing so awesome."

Bender's ever-present smile was contagious yesterday. The Warriors were a very energized, happy group as they prepared for this week's matches against current No. 2 Pepperdine.

"I see everyone out here with a big smile on their face," freshman middle Kyle Klinger said. "Everyone's loving to play volleyball. Everybody enjoyed the big win and they're looking forward to this week.

"Winning (Saturday) was amazing. We took a big step. We weren't sure of where we stood with some of the other teams in the league. We definitely see that we can play with anybody. The biggest thing is our confidence is so improved."

Hawaii, a half-game behind league leader Pepperdine, hopes it continues. Two wins over the Waves would put the Warriors back into first place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings as well as give them the edge in hosting the MPSF semifinals and final.

"This week is all about taking one game at a time," Beckwith said. "We're focusing on what we have to do to beat Pepperdine. We're focusing on each team individually, not the ranking implications.

"Saturday was a good win and we're pretty excited about it. But we're also eager to move on."

The next test comes quickly. Hawaii opens its two-match series with Pepperdine tomorrow.

The Waves, riding an eight-match win streak, are coming off an 80-minute sweep of Cal State Northridge last Wednesday. Sophomore middle John Parfitt had a career-high 24 kills, including 10 in Game 1 against the Matadors.

Pepperdine is led by 6-9 senior outside hitter Sean Rooney, a three-time All-American averaging 5.21 kills a game, fifth-best nationally, and has 26 aces. Andy Hein, a 6-11 junior middle, leads the country in hitting percentage (.581) and the Waves in blocking with 57.

Senior John Mayer, Pepperdine's setter the past two seasons, has made a smooth transition to outside hitter and had 11 kills and 10 digs against Northridge. Running the offense is freshman setter Jonathan Winder (13.23 assists).

The Waves have four players from the islands: senior libero James Ka (Kamehameha), junior hitter Jon Grobe (Iolani), freshman hitter Max de Wolff (Academy of the Pacific) and freshman hitter Eric Liebert (Punahou), who is redshirting. In his first year as an assistant is former Wave Scott Wong (Punahou).

"It's always an honor to play and coach against Pepperdine," Warrior coach Mike Wilton said. "I have the utmost respect for Marv (Pepperdine coach Dunphy) and his athletes. They're always good sportsmen, they play really hard and they're well-coached.

"They've got a lot of weapons and serve the ball real well. Whoever wins the serve-and-pass battle will win the match. So we've got to serve aggressively like we did the second night at UCLA and stick that first pass."

Wilton hopes that the win over UCLA proved something to the Warriors.

"I hope that it gives some tangible credence to what we've been trying to tell these guys this season," he said, "that we are a really good volleyball team."

Hawaii's lineup likely will be the same as Saturday's. Klinger has moved into the second blocker's spot, replacing Dio Dante, and Lauri Hakala is on the outside instead of Jose Delgado.

"But things are always subject to change, depending on how practice goes," Wilton said.