Irvine makes fast work of UH
Advertiser Staff
The University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team probably should have avoided coming back for the encore.
A day after defeating top-ranked UC Irvine in four games Friday night, the Warriors were swamped in the rematch, losing 30-20, 30-26, 30-25 in 82 minutes at Irvine, Calif.
"They torched us," UH coach Mike Wilton said. "They really came out and got us. We seemed a day late and a dollar short in all of the transactions."
The Warriors did not have a hitter with double-digit kills. Left-side hitter Costas Theocharidis, the nation's Player of the Year in 2001, had more hitting errors (nine) than kills (seven) for the first time in his collegiate career. He hit negative-.100 before yielding to Matt Bender, the designated server, in the final game.
Theocharidis had plenty of company on the sideline. UH had four first-year players in the lineup for the last half of the third game.
"My wrists got sore making the substitution signal," Wilton said.
Friday's match was played in the 5,000-seat Bren Center. The rematch was in 700-seat Crawford Hall, the Anteaters' usual venue. The change did a student body good. The standing-room-only crowd, led by the CIA — "Completely Insane Anteaters," comprising of face-painted students — energized the Irvine players.
"We go from the arena to a little bitty crackerbox, and that's an environment the Irvine players are used to and they love it," Wilton said. "They were ready to rock and we were flat."
On the match's first play, Irvine ran a chute play to middle hitter Nic Vislay, who crushed a kill. "That set the tone for the rest of the match," Wilton said.
The Warriors' usually reliable passing was erratic.
Freshman libero Matt Motter and outside hitter Eyal Zimet struggled to find setter Kimo Tuyay. That led to Tuyay having to make long sets to the outside, which, in turn, allowed Irvine to plant its block. The Anteaters amassed 15.5 blocks, compared to the Warriors' five, and Theocharidis was rejected six times.
"He found the block really good," Wilton said. "He hit into the meat of the block, which is certainly uncharacteristic of him."
Wilton traced the problems to the passing. UH uses a 3.0 scale to rate passes, with at least a 2.4 as the desired score. In Friday's match, UH scored 2.5 or higher in its three winning games. Last night, Wilton estimated, UH averaged 2.1.
"Our offense was anemic," Wilton said. "Take your pick: Irvine's serving or our passing."
Wilton said he had hoped his players would be better prepared. But he feared the ease of Friday's victory might have siphoned some of the emotion.
"I worried like crazy," he recalled. "I wondered, how seriously will we take them the second night? The message should have been clear: Irvine is a good team."
Spencer Bemus sparked the Anteaters with nine kills in Game 1 (14 for the match). Opposite hitter Jimmy Pelzel had a match-high 16 kills and two of the Anteaters' six aces.
When Zimet struggled, he was replaced by Pedro Azenha. Later, setter Daniel Rasay came in for Tuyay.
"It wasn't just one person," Wilton said. "It was a team and staff effort, for sure. It's a very helpless feeling as a coach to not have many light bulbs on simultaneously. There's not much you can say. You can try different things, like subs, but they didn't fly. Irvine wasn't about to have any of it."
The Warriors, who fell to 6-2 overall and 2-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, will remain on the Mainland through matches against Long Beach State Wednesday and Friday.
Irvine improved to 11-1 and 4-1. This was the second victory in 23 matches against UH.
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