UH sweeps Long Beach, advances to MPSF finals

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

In a men's volleyball match in which emotions were not exhausted even after the aloha point, Hawai'i powered its way to a 30-26, 30-28, 30-28 victory over Long Beach State last night in the opening round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament.

Libero Vernon Podlewski of Hawai'i comes up with a dig against Long Beach State. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

"They tried to bully us," UH libero Vernon Podlewski said. "But we got our lunch money back."

After calming his players, 49er coach Alan Knipe said, "The stuff that went on after the match and some of the antics during the match are an embarrassment to our sport. It's like a circus."

Said UH coach Mike Wilton: "Trash-talking is not good. ... I wish guys would grow up a little bit."

By winning, the Warriors will play UC Santa Barbara, a surprise five-game winner over third-ranked UCLA, in the semifinals at Pepperdine Thursday. Pepperdine will play Brigham Young in the other semifinal. Saturday's tournament winner earns an automatic berth in the NCAA final four.

Victories by Pepperdine and UH Thursday should guarantee both teams berths in the final four. "You would think," Wilton said.

But for now, the Warriors will settle for basking in the glory of settling an IOU from a home loss to the 49ers in February. "The score says it all," Miladinovic said.

The Warriors entered the match with concerns about their starting lineup. While Tony Ching has played well at Costas Theocharidis' usual position on the left side, Theocharidis has struggled at opposite, where he is on the right side for five rotation turns. With Oprah-like diplomacy, Wilton resolved the matter by moving outside hitter Eyal Zimet to opposite and keeping Ching and Theocharidis on the left side.

"Yes, I did it for the team," Zimet said. "I think Costas is more comfortable hitting on the left side. That's obvious, because he was player of the year over there (in 2001). I don't have a problem hitting from the right side. I'll do whatever it takes for the team to reach its potential. If it takes me hitting from the right side, I'll do it."

Theocharidis hammered a match-high 16 kills, but it was Zimet who provided the steadying influence. Zimet passed accurately to starting setter Kimo Tuyay and then Daniel Rasay, contributed three blocks and put down 12 kills (against one error).

"He was our one dependable guy," Wilton said. "Costas had good numbers, but he was not animated at all. We need him to come up and play with emotion. He could have gotten us out of it if he played with the fury he plays with in big matches. He was kind of out there."

But Zimet said many of UH's problems were traced to being "over-pumped up. A lot of mistakes were from wanting it so much. We needed patience."

Meanwhile, the 49ers proved to be a scrappy opponent. Down 28-24 in the first game, 6-foot-9 outside hitter Nicholas Marbach, a key player in February's victory, suffered a deep cut on his right pinkie. He received six stitches, and did not play again.

That led to the first of many moves for Knipe, who scrambled for combinations with a safecracker's desperation. He switched setters in Game 2, switched blocking schemes in the final two games, and told Jeff Wootton to hit from every rotation spot. In the third game, the 49ers blew a 20-16 lead.

Knipe said it has been a season-long struggle to replace seven players from last year's team, and the 49ers could not match the Warriors' experience. The average age of a UH starter is 22, and seniors Miladinovic and Podlewski are 25.

"Half of the guys on that team are older than half the guys on our national team," Knipe said. "They should be playing professionally in Europe and not playing in college. We have a whole bunch of true freshmen. To us, a true freshman means 18 years old, not 24."

But in the end, it was a freshman who led the Warriors. Tuyay was pulled in Game 3 when he struggled to read the 49ers' blocking schemes.

"We thought he had a real bad case of tunnel vision," Wilton said.

With UH trailing 16-12, Wilton turned to Rasay, who was able to evenly distribute sets, preventing the 49ers from bunching their blockers.

"That was a great battle," Zimet said. "It was mostly close because of us. We did some stupid mistakes. But we came through. We won 3-0 in the quarterfinals, and that's all that counts."