If volleyball Warriors win, it'll serve them right
By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
For all of the hype and hoopla, preparation and preening, tonight's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men's volleyball tournament semifinal between Hawai'i and host Brigham Young will come down to this: Serves and service receptions.
"The strategy, for both teams, is to serve well," BYU coach Carl McGown said.
"That's real true," UH coach Mike Wilton said. "I can't argue with that."
Consider a volleyball play to be a chain reaction. The service receiver tries to bump a pass toward the setter, who then tees it for the hitters. The better the pass, the better the set, the greater chance for a kill. It is a sport designed with Anne Robinson in mind.
"We don't want aces so much as serves that cause passes that aren't so great," Wilton said.
For that reason, Torry Tukuafu, who platoons with Tony Ching, will start at opposite. Tukuafu is considered to be a better server, although somewhat of a liability as a passer.
Outside hitter Eyal Zimet, UH's best server, said the Warriors will try to place serves just in front of the back line, reducing the area in which to set up a dig, or between receivers, causing confusion on the Cougars' side of the net.
The Warriors would prefer to target BYU outside hitter Joaquin Acosta, an adequate passer, but "they hide him pretty good," Wilton said. The Warriors want to avoid libero Fernando Pessoa, an excellent passer, or outside hitter Jonathan Alleman. But if both are unavoidable, at the least, the Warriors' serves must be crisp.
"If you have to hit at a digger, you need some heat," Wilton said.
UH's margin of error is slim because of BYU's Hector Lebron. What makes Lebron the country's best setter is not only his ease in setting to one side when the defense is looking to the other, but his ability to read his teammates' passes. Just as former Boston Red Sox left fielder Carl Yastrzemski effectively fielded the ricochets off of Fenway Park's Green Monster to hold hitters to singles, Hebron is able anticipate the direction of the passes from the serve placement and race over to create hittable sets.
"He has a good idea of where the ball is going, and he runs what he wants to run from there," Wilton said. On sets, Wilton said of Hebron, "he's very deceptive. There's no question about it. He likes to make the difficult sets."
Once Hebron is in control, he has a full menu of options. During the regular season, outside hitter Mike Wall averaged 4.31 kills and middle blocker Matt Olsen led the MPSF with a .583 hitting percentage.
But McGown said the "people who start the match aren't always the ones who finish it."
After several lean years, McGown built the program to the point where there is depth at every position. Early in the season, McGown began using 10 or 12 players in each match, preparing them to play in spurts.
BYU uses at least three players at the two middles and four at the two outside spots. McGown will pull Wall if he's struggling, and keep in an unheralded reserve if he's serving well.
"We decided from the beginning that we wanted to be a deep team," McGown said. "That's been the plan."
It was an effective strategy two weeks ago, when the Cougars swept the Warriors in the final two matches of the regular season. UH's Dejan Miladinovic, one of the country's top middles, had difficulty against the succession of BYU blockers.
In reviewing the matches — the coaches grade every practice and match — Wilton discovered that in the first meeting against BYU, the Warriors had a 33 percent efficiency rating, meaning they scored every third time they served. The next night, their rating fell to 30 percent. Wilton said the Warriors need to be at 40 percent to be effective.
"To reach our goal, we need to serve better," Wilton said.
The Warriors spent the last two practices working on serves. They also feel confident that they will not have problems with the dryness caused by Provo's thin air. Wilton said the players have perfected techniques to keep their fingers moist.
"We have some film to watch (today), but all of our work is almost done," Wilton said. "Then the cake will be in the oven."
