Posted on: Friday, April 25, 2003

Cougars' plan had right angle

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

MALIBU, Calif. — In Brigham Young University's volleyball film room, the "Costas Plan" was hatched.

The thinking was this: If the Cougars were to beat Hawai'i in the semifinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament, they needed to stop opposite hitter Costas Theocharidis, the league's Player of the Year.

Theocharidis, whose shots have been clocked at 70 mph, entered last night's match as the nation's kill leader, averaging 5.36 per game.

"He's a great player," BYU libero Fernando Pessoa said. "That's why we've been studying him for a week."

BYU middle blocker Chris Gorny said Theocharidis is "good read hitter" who uses a 37-inch vertical leap to "hit shots off the block."

In setting up a double block against Theocharidis, Gorny said, "you have to be disciplined. Sometimes it's better to try and make him hit around (the block) and into our dig."

Pessoa said the book on Theocharidis is he prefers to hit angle shots. Theochar-idis wants to either find a hole in the back row or ricochet a shot off the block and out of bounds. BYU's strategy was to even out the block so a ricochet would go back toward Theocharidis and place either Pessoa or outside hitter Rafael Paal at the kitty corner.

"We knew he likes to go angle, and we wanted to make sure we could dig him," Pessoa said. "We wanted to put someone at the angle, and if (Theocharidis) made a nice play, well, clap hands for him. But we knew that 70 percent of the balls were going to that spot, and they did. Good for us."

Theocharidis had 13 kills in 42 swings, committing seven attack errors. He hit .143.

"I kept thinking the guy would pull out of it," UH coach Mike Wilton said of Theocharidis. "It didn't happen."

Last month, the Warriors redesigned their offense to allow Theocharidis to take swings from all six rotation spots. Last night, with Theocharidis in a funk, setter Daniel Rasay went to Tony Ching for the clutch points.

Theocharidis, one of four seniors, said, "Nobody wants it to end like this, but that's life. Whatever happens, happens. You can't change it. You have to leave it behind and move on."

Still, he admitted, it will be difficult to forget last night's match, the last of his UH career.

"We didn't give our best, that's why I think it's going to hurt for a while," he said. "If we played our best, we wouldn't lose. The only thing we're afraid of is ourselves. We didn't play well, and that's why we lost."