Hawai'i slams past BYU into MPSF final

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

PROVO, Utah — In the belly of the beast, the University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team found its heart and spirit last night, ousting Brigham Young, 30-26, 25-30, 30-27, 30-24, in the semifinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs.

Hawai'i's Eyal Zimet slams a kill past BYU's Jonathan Allenman during last night's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation semifinal at Provo, Utah. UH beat BYU in four games to advance to tomorrow's final against UCLA. Kevin Lee • Special to The Honolulu Advertiser

BYU owned the nation's top ranking, the tournament's top seed and, for the last several years, UH. The Cougars won the last five meetings, including two matches to end the regular season two weeks ago in noisy Smith Fieldhouse.

"We were carrying a big burden on our backs," UH outside hitter Costas Theocharidis said. "If we lose, we go back to Hawai'i. That's it. The season's over. If we win, we play UCLA" — last night's other semifinal winner — "in the (tournament) championship match. I love Hawai'i. I really love it. But I wasn't ready to go back there."

Last night's commencement ceremonies lowered attendance to 1,584 in the 5,000-seat facility, but not the crowd's volume. The BYU supporters, many sitting in the shadow of a UH server, launched a relentless attack of taunts. They mimicked the accents of the Warriors' foreign-born players, and held up home-made yellow cards whenever a UH player protested a call.

"They can be very loud," UH coach Mike Wilton said. "All (the Cougars) have to do is one little thing, and it's like pouring gas on a fire."

But the Warriors did not fold. Instead, they endured floor burns from diving saves, bull-headedness from repeatedly trying to collapse the BYU block one swing at a time, and inspiration from an unlikely source.

Mild-mannered setter Kimo Tuyay, who was named the league's co-freshman of the year earlier in the day, morphed into the Warriors' cool-handed leader during the match.

Tuyay distributed the offense — 18 kills by Theocharidis, 15 by outside hitter Eyal Zimet, 13 by Davis — and took charge whenever the Cougars rallied.

During one timeout, Wilton tried to set up several scenarios.

"I called a play for us to try and get a point off a (service) receive," Wilton said. "I said, 'If that one doesn't apply, here's the next option.' He (Tuyay) said, 'Coach, it's unnecessary. We're getting (the point) right now.' I thought that was huge."

Said Davis: "I've never seen him like that. All night, he said, 'We're going to do this right now.' That's just star quality when a guy gets in a playoff atmosphere and steps up his game. He played great. He played out of his mind."

Tuyay said he wanted to make up for the previous two losses to BYU.

"We let those matches slip away," Tuyay said. "I wanted a payback. The whole team did. We pushed and we wanted it more than BYU did, and it showed."

BYU opposite hitter Mike Wall, who leads the team in kills per game, played sparingly because of an ankle injury. BYU coach Carl McGown said that might have created a "domino effect" because Wall's replacement, Jonathan Alleman, was unavailable to provide a boost on the other side when outside hitter Jaime Mayol went into a hitting slump.

Still, McGown acknowledged, "I think the bottom line is Hawai'i played better than we did."

The Warriors had an answer for every Cougar attack. Luka Slabe, who served four consecutive points in the second game, couldn't find an opening in the final two games. He finished with two service errors.

BYU's Hector Lebron, the country's best setter, also struggled. UH's tough serves led to bad BYU passes, which led to Lebron feeding his hitters to the UH block.

"When we did make it close, then we'd hit a ball out of bounds or get blocked or serve it out," BYU middle blocker Scott Bunker said. "We lost a lot of our momentum."

Much of it was seized by the Warriors, who amassed 19 blocks and held the Cougars to a hitting percentage of .208. "We were making crazy digs, passing it well, doing anything we could," Theocharidis said. "We left it all on the court."

The Warriors, ranked No. 2 nationally but seeded fourth in this eight-team tournament, believe they have done enough to merit at least an at-large berth in the NCAA final four. The three conference tournament winners earn berths; the at-large berth usually goes to a member of the MPSF, the country's best conference.

But, to be sure, Davis said the Warriors need to win the MPSF final against UCLA, which beat Long Beach State in five games last night.

"We don't want to leave it in a selection committee's hands," Davis said. "I think we deserve to be in the final four, but you know the politics of volleyball. It's like the Florida elections, only there's no recount. It's easy to give us the shaft. We have to go out and win the championship."