Volleyball Warriors still No. 3 in poll

Advertiser Staff

Despite a decisive two-match sweep over UC San Diego last week, the University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team remained third in this week's USA Today/American Volleyball Coaches Association poll.

UCLA (11-1), which is tied for first with Hawai'i in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, earned the No. 1 ranking for the third week in a row. Pepperdine (10-3), which lost to UCLA in five games last week, remains at No. 2.

"I expected it to be that way," said UH coach Mike Wilton, whose team is 9-2 overall and 6-0 in the MPSF. "When (No.) 2 loses to (No.) 1, not much change will happen. ... I still think we're carrying a little baggage from our opening loss (to Loyola Chicago)."

Wilton said he has opened the competition for UH's next match against Long Beach State. All-America player Costas Theocharidis, Eyal Zimet, Tony Ching and Jose Delgado are competing for the three outside hitter positions; Dejan Miladinovic, Brian Nordberg and Delano Thomas are the candidates at middle blocker.

Wilton said a scoring system factoring accuracy and effort during practice will determine the starters. Wilton said Theocharidis, last year's national Player of the Year, is not exempt from the competition.

"Why not?" Wilton said, adding, "if Costas plays the way he can, it shouldn't be a problem. Competition is a good thing."