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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, February 9, 2002

Warriors ride sweep to share of league lead

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i's Jose Delgado, left, and Brian Nordberg go up for a block against UC San Diego at the Stan Sheriff Center. Hawai'i won, 30-23, 30-20, 30-18.

Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

The University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team eased past UC San Diego, 30-23, 30-20, 30-18, and into a first-place tie in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation last night.

A crowd of 3,371 in the Stan Sheriff Center watched the Warriors improve to 8-2 overall and 5-0 in the MPSF, matching top-ranked UCLA's conference record. The Tritons fell to 1-8 and 0-7.

"It's too early to look at the standings," UH outside hitter Costas Theocharidis said. "We're just enjoying the way we're playing."

The MPSF does not have a film exchange program, and only through setter Kimo Tuyay, who was raised in San Diego, did the Warriors learn that the Tritons excelled in passing, especially libero Dickens Tai.

"Our strategy was: don't serve it to the libero," UH outside hitter Eyal Zimet said.

Instead, the Warriors tried to place serves into the middle of the Tritons' defense, then set up a block.

"We wanted to keep the ball in play, cut down on serving errors, and try to play defense," Tuyay said.

The Tritons had early difficulty trying to hit over the UH block. The adjustment — setting higher — led to bigger problems. Setter Jordan Hove's high arcs gave the Warriors enough time to adjust their block.

"The high sets obviously gave us a little more time to get over and cover," UH middle blocker Brian Nordberg said. "We really concentrated on reading the setter, focusing on his hands, and that led us to having some good reads."

Said UC San Diego outside hitter Chris Mortimer: "We struggled a little bit running our offense. We passed pretty well, but they blocked a lot of balls. We lost a little bit of momentum."

The Tritons scrambled to find any way to hit over the net, resorting to dinks and push shots. Plan B proved to be as ineffective as the original scheme.

"We know they can pass the ball, but the server is kind of predictable, so we knew where the ball was going," Theocharidis said.

The direction of the match soon became apparent. Theocharidis and Tuyay were replaced midway through the second game.

By late in the third game, UH coach Mike Wilton had used 11 of the 12 players in uniform. Middle blocker Geronimo "Jo Jo" Chala did not play because of a knee injury.

Libero Jake Muise played in place of Zimet, and finished the match as a front-row hitter. Muise, who is optimistically listed at 6 feet, put away the aloha ball.

"It's fun," Muise said of playing outside hitter. "I've had great training. I get to hit against these guys" — he pointed to his teammates — "in practice. You learn a lot hitting against the best blockers in the country every day."

The match also marked the return of UH outside hitter Tony Ching, who missed the previous seven games because of a muscle tear in the back of his swinging shoulder. Ching said his right arm is fine, and he proved it with consecutive booming shots in the third game.

"I'm trying to work myself back into the rotation," Ching said. "I'm trying to get a feel for the court again. At first, I was a little shaky. But after I settled in, I was comfortable. I started hitting better. It was nice. It was a good feeling."

Freshman Jose Delgado, despite tweaking his left ankle when he landed awkwardly in the second game, finished with a match-high 11 kills.