UCLA sweeps Hawai'i for tournament title

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Once again, the bully came out on top.

UCLA's Rich Nelson tries to block a kill attempt by Hawai'i's Jose Delgado in the first game. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

A crowd of 7,148 — the largest of the season — was stunned into silence as the second-ranked Bruins (5-1) won the Outrigger for the sixth time. They are 7-1 against the Warriors in this tournament.

"I don't know who that was, but that wasn't our real team," UH outside hitter Jose Delgado said. "It was not our night. We can play a lot better than that."

The Warriors had a chance to win the first game — and seize the momentum — but could not capitalize on a 29-27 lead.

Three hitting errors, including one in which freshmen Delano Thomas and Delgado both tried to hit the same ball, were the Warriors' undoing.

"It was just a lack of communication," Thomas said.

Then in the second game, "We were as flat as a pancake," UH coach Mike Wilton said.

The Bruins picked on the Warriors' erratic passing, then picked apart the interior block.

"They executed better than we did," Wilton said. "We beat ourselves right and left."

The Bruins' strategy was to launch jump serves in the direction of libero Vernon Podlewski and Delgado, who started his third match in place of injured outside hitter Tony Ching.

"We tried to give (Delgado) as many balls as we could, and see what he could do," UCLA setter Rich Nelson said.

UH's defenders sprayed several passes, forcing setter Kimo Tuyay to scramble to choreograph the offense.

"We did a good job of serving," said UCLA coach Al Scates, noting the Bruins did not commit a service error in the first game.

Meanwhile, UH's serves lacked gusto, allowing long-armed Matt Komer and under-rated libero Adam Shrader to pass accurately to Nelson. With enough time, Nelson was able to loft sets that seemed to scream: "Hit me."

"I have so much confidence in all of my hitters," Nelson said. "I know I can go to any player, and he'll get off a good shot."

In the tournament's first two matches, Nelson often went outside to Jonathan Acosta, Cameron Mount or Komer.

This time, he looked to middle hitter Chris Pena, perhaps UCLA's most-improved player. Pena did not make the traveling squad last season, but last night, he soared for 16 kills. "Pena was hot," Scates said. "He came out and was hitting everything."

UCLA also received a boost from middle hitter Scott Morrow, who has struggled because of torn ligaments in his non-hitting thumb. With his left hand heavily wrapped, Morrow fearlessly challenged every UH shot, and even managed to amass seven kills on a mixed plate of dinks, pushes and lasers.

"They killed us in the middle," Theocharidis said.

Wilton tried several remedies to slow the bleeding. In the second game, after Thomas went wide on consecutive hits, Wilton summoned middle blocker Brian Nordberg.

Nordberg, who appears laid-back and rides a skateboard to matches, turns into an energizer on the court. But Nordberg could not offer much of a lift, and Nelson continued to set to Pena and Morrow. Acosta, who had difficulty against UH's double blocks on the outside, found success when he sneaked to the middle to launch shots. Acosta, who had 14 kills, was named the tournament's most outstanding player.

For the third game, Wilton brought in Jake Muise to play libero. By then, the Bruins were in control.

"The story was serving and passing," UH middle blocker Dejan Miladinovic said. "If we could have done a better job ..."

"If, if, if ..." Theocharidis said later. "There's no 'if.' We didn't play the way we should have played."

In the first match of the night, it was top-ranked Penn State's turn to dominate, this time in a 30-20, 30-27, 30-26 victory over No. 11 Lewis.

The Nittany Lions (2-2) were swept in earlier tournament matches against UH and UCLA.

The Nittany Lions were able to effectively serve, often to freshman Gustavo Meyer, giving their block and diggers time to jump-start their offense. The Nittany Lions had 12 aces.

Outside hitter Zeliko Koljesar and middle blocker Zach Slenker each had 15 kills.

Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said the early match on the final day usually is the most difficult. The adrenaline of playing host UH and traditionally powerful UCLA is exhausting and, Pavlik noted, "your people here have been so nice and it's so relaxing here."

Pavlik decided to cancel yesterday's afternoon practice, saving his players more than two hours in travel and workouts.

The Nittany Lions, who appeared fatigued early in the tournament after traveling 15 hours, were refreshed yesterday. They passed well, set even better and hit with efficiency (.369 hitting percentage).

Lewis fell to 0-3.

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