Warrior volleyball team rolls through Ramblers

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Showing its quick-change artistry, the University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team crafted a 30-25, 30-25, 30-22 victory over Loyola-Chicago last night.

Hawai'i's Tony Ching, left, tries to block a kill attempt by Loyola-Chicago's Mike Alesch in the first game. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We did a good job of adjusting considering how early (the system) was introduced," UH middle blocker Brian Nordberg said.

Imagine UH's lineup as a six-slice pie. In the old system, Eyal Zimet's slice, or position, was opposite from setter Kimo Tuyay's. Last night, in a system known as "Reverse 5-1," Costas Theocharidis played opposite and Zimet moved to outside hitter.

The simple change had a broad impact. Tony Ching, the other outside hitter, took three rotation turns on the left side, where he is most comfortable. Theocharidis was freed to swing away from all six spots. Zimet was available for more sets, and Nordberg, who followed Theocharidis in the rotation, was able to attack from the right to the left. "Personally, I like running my route that way," Nordberg said.

The change was made after UH coaches noticed there was a weak rotation turn in the previous system. "Now," Zimet said, "we've got our offense covered at all rotations."

That was evident in the final statistics. The Warriors had 24 more swings and 21 more kills than the Ramblers.

"They were getting swings on every play," Loyola coach Tim O'Brien said.

Before implementing the new system, UH coach Mike Wilton discussed the change with Theocharidis, the Warriors' best player. Theocharidis gave his blessing.

"As long as it works for the team, it's fine by me," Theocharidis said. "As long as I put the balls away and the team wins, that's all that matters."

Wilton conceded the Warriors struggled. "I have to admit a lot of times we didn't look very fluid, because it was like, 'Oh, where am I supposed to go next?' " Wilton said. "We'll get better at it. This was devised just because it lends itself well to some strengths that we have."

Theocharidis said he does not expect a prolonged transition period.

"Because we're all good athletes, it's easy to adjust to any system," said Theocharidis, who hammered a match-high 18 kills. "We're a short team, but we're the most athletic team in the country. We're midgets, but we can jump over the trees."

That agility was evident in Game 2, when Zimet raced toward the end-zone stands to make a kick-save pass. Tuyay dived and lofted the ball over the net, and soon after, Ching finished the play by winning a joust at the net. Theocharidis raced over and bear-hugged Zimet.

"I guess it helped that I played a little soccer in high school," Zimet said. "You can't dive at it, because it's too close to the wall, and I was kind of late. (Kicking it) was the only way I could get it back to the court."

Meanwhile, the Warriors used well-placed serves — they had seven aces and committed only six service errors in the first two games — to reduce the Ramblers' offense to a predictable choreography of quick sets to the middle or Justin Schnor's attacks from the left side.

"They were in system and we weren't," O'Brien said. "It's almost elementary."

Earlier, Wilton announced that freshman Pedro Azenha, who quit the team last week, was reinstated. He will rejoin the team on Monday.

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