Cardinal spike 'Bows

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

UH's Delano Thomas scored a kill past the block of Stanford's Chris Ahlfeldt in last night's first game. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

A crowd of 5,303 was stunned into silence as the Warriors failed to put away the pesky Cardinal.

UH fell to 5-1 overall and 1-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Stanford is 3-5 and 1-3.

"I think we're better than Stanford," said UH outside hitter Costas Theocharidis, who pounded a match-high 31 kills. "We played good at times and we played bad at times. We played bad down the stretch. We were up 2-0 and suddenly we were inconsistent. I don't know the reason why."

The first clue, perhaps, was the UH medical chart. Already short-handed because of a back injury that kept opposite hitter Eyal Zimet from the active roster, the Warrior problems were compounded when middle blocker Delano Thomas suffered a sprained right thumb on his swinging hand in the first game.

Thomas played through the first four games, although he grimaced with every block and hit, and spent each break icing his right hand.

"He became a non-factor," UH coach Mike Wilton said.

Thomas did not start in Game 5, yielding to Brian Nordberg, who did not play in UH's first five matches while recovering from shoulder surgery.

Thomas returned, with UH down 13-8, but by then, the Warriors could not slow the bleeding from their self-inflicted wounds. The Warriors committed a season-high 31 hitting errors and gave away another 18 points on service errors.

"After a while, I think we lost confidence in ourselves," Wilton said.

Matt Motter, a UH freshman libero who made his first collegiate start, said: "When the game's close and a little mistake happens, it kind of brings your level of thinking down. It's like, 'Oh, gosh, it's getting close.' We have to rise above all of that and play our game."

The turning point actually came in Game 2, when Toppel, a 6-foot-8 All-America opposite hitter, suffered the pulled abdominal muscle. During the 10-minute intermission before Game 3, Stanford coach Don Shaw crafted a two-prong strategy. David Vogel moved from libero to outside hitter, replacing William Curtis, and Jeremy Jacobs entered as the libero. The shifts were designed to allow Curtis to become the opposite hitter if Toppel had to leave. The bonus was that with Vogel and Jacobs in the lineup, Stanford basically had two defensive specialists and accurate passers on the court at the same time.

The move "gave us a little better ball control," Shaw said. "Jacob is a good passer and defender, and Vogel does those things, too, as well as an adequate job playing outside hitter."

Stanford also tried to soft-serve, taking its chances on UH's self-destructive tendencies.

Theocharidis and Pedro Azenha, who started in place of Zimet, were able to launch shots from the corners. And while middle blocker Joshua Stanhiser contributed 10 kills, the Warriors missed Thomas' usual production and outside hitter Tony Ching's consistency. Ching, Theocharidis and Thomas combined for 23 hitting errors.

Those problems opened the way for Toppel, who played all five games.

"You'll have to yank the guy off the court," Shaw said. "He wants to win so badly. I don't know how badly (the abdominal pull) was hurting him. He's not going to let it stop him."

Toppel, who wore a fiberglass cast on his left hand, was able to adjust to UH's shifting block. When the Warriors tried to cut off angle shots, Toppel attacked the lines. When the block moved to the corner, Toppel hit shots that ricocheted away from the UH passers.

In Game 5, Toppel scored three of the Cardinal's first five points. Stanford had leads of 6-2, 7-3 and 11-6.

"We finally got hot toward the end," he said. "We fought hard. Hawai'i has been unbelievable. They've been right with us every single game. But we finally made some plays. At the end, we felt we couldn't do anything wrong. It's a great feeling to play well and just be able to do the right things."

UH setter Kimo Tuyay said: "It wasn't our night."