Warrior volleyball faces tall challenge
By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
Even the nation's top-ranked men's volleyball team can be overlooked.
Hawai'i will have a height disadvantage — again — when it hosts Stanford in tonight's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opener in the Stan Sheriff Center.
The average height for a UH starting outside hitter is 6 feet 2¡; Stanford averages 6-7á per starting perimeter hitter.
But UH outside hitter Costas Theocharidis said size does not matter.
"Trees are tall, but they don't play volleyball," said Theocharidis, who is optimistically listed at 6 feet 3. "You can't do anything about how you were shaped, how you were born. You have to get better at your game and disregard things like, 'Oh, you're not so tall.' So what."
UH libero Jake Muise conceded the Warriors "have the shortest hitters in the league. But we had the shortest hitters last year, and that didn't hinder us too much. Those guys may be short, but they're probably the most athletic guys in the conference by far. I'd rather have six athletic guys than six really big guys."
Theocharidis, who was the nation's Player of the Year in 2001, has a vertical jump of about 37 inches; the 6-foot-2 Tony Ching can jump 40 inches. Eyal Zimet, at 6-2, is the Warriors' best passer.
"We know how to work with what we've been given," Ching said.
On offense, Ching is effective on pipe plays, in which he blasts shots from behind the 10-foot line. Theocharidis and Zimet are skilled at hitting shots that ricochet off the blocks.
"Most of the teams try to outpower our team," Theocharidis said. "We try to over-smart them, if you can say that — I mean, outsmart them."
Stanford will offer a difficult challenge. In particular, the Cardinal's Curt Toppel is a complex attacker to defend. At 6 feet 8, he tries to parlay high sets into shots over and off the blocks. He also is efficient in hitting crossing shots, forcing the back-row players to scramble.
"He swings high and hard at every opportunity," UH's Muise said. "You always have to be ready to move."
Toppel takes 28 percent of the Cardinal's swings, and averages 4.67 kills per game. Positioned at opposite, where he will be aligned mostly on the right, Toppel will be across from Theocharidis.
"We have to block him," Theocharidis said. "Sometimes he's going to get high sets and try to hit it off the block. But we're a good defensive team, a good blocking team. I think we're going to be really effective in dealing with him."
After five nonconference matches — the exhibition loss to Shanghai Oriental last weekend does not count against the standings — the Warriors are anxious to compete in the MPSF. Eight of the 12 MPSF teams advance to the postseason tournament. After the quarterfinals, the highest remaining seed serves as host to the MPSF semifinals and championship match.
"Seeding is very important," Zimet said. "It's going to be interesting. The teams in our conference are better. No offense to Lewis or Penn State or Ball State, but we're going to have harder competition from now on."
"Now," Theocharidis added, "we're going to be playing for something that counts."
