Warriors complete sweep of UCLA

By Diamond Leung
Special to The Advertiser

LOS ANGELES — Hawai'i didn't sweep UCLA in last night's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball victory, but it cleaned up on just about everything else.

The Warriors won for the second consecutive night in four games and took a two-match series at Pauley Pavilion for the first time in school history. It was fitting that UH served the rival Bruins off their own court. In a 30-19, 30-23, 28-30, 30-19 victory, the Warriors once again sent the beleaguered Bruins ducking for cover.

UH outside hitter Tony Ching, motivated by comments made by the Bruins in the days leading up to the matches, served four of the eight Warrior aces to tie a career-high. That makes one Ching ace for every win UH has now ever had at Pauley.

"They didn't respect us," he said. "I think we proved something to them tonight and earned some respect."

The Warriors led Game 1 by as many as 12 points, as they aced the Bruins six times. Ching and middle blocker Delano Thomas blasted three apiece to set the tempo for the rest of the match.

Trailing 21-19 in Game 2, UH scored three consecutive points of Ching's blistering serve to take the lead. With the scored tied at 23, the Warriors forced overpasses to run off seven straight points and close out the game.

"Friday was the best serving night I've seen in my 41 years of coaching," UCLA coach Al Scates said. "I knew they couldn't do it two nights in a row, but it was so close that it made no difference."

Scates did everything he could to stop the UH heat, even phoning little-used passing specialist Saul Zemaitaitis on Friday at midnight to inform him that he would be suiting up yesterday. Zemaitaitis replaced outside hitter Gray Garrett in Game 2 and eventually libero Adam Shrader for the rest of the match.

But even players from behind the Blue Curtain (the gym curtain that separates the roster players from the practice squad) couldn't shield the Bruins from the UH serve. In fact, it was their hands, forearms, and, most apparently, faces that turned red.

"We served them aggressively and took them out of their rhythm," said UH outside hitter Costas Theocharidis, who had a match-high 27 kills.

Scates tried to have his own players serving just as aggressively, but that just played right into UH's hands. Seven of the Bruins' 19 serving errors came in Game 1, and they had just two aces all night.

Middle blocker David Russell, who started in place of veteran senior Scott Morrow because of his jumpserve, failed to serve or block well.

UCLA, led by outside hitter Jonathan Acosta's 17 kills, did fight back. The Bruins managed to pull out Game 3 despite trailing 28-24, but they were ultimately no match for the Warriors, who ran away with Game 4.

"We played well, at least in Games 1, 2 and 4," UH coach Mike Wilton said. "It was a character-check after Game 3."

The Warriors (15-5, 9-5 MPSF) out-hit the Bruins .459-.342, out-blocked them 9.5-9 and out-dug them 38-24.

Ching, who also had 19 kills, did put the win, which vaulted the Warriors to third place in the MPSF, into perspective.

"Winning is a rush, but this was business for us," he said.

UH, however, still found some time to cherish beating UCLA.

"UCLA isn't what it used to be," Theocharidis said. "We killed them. I think we knocked them out of the (MPSF) playoffs. Mission accomplished."

UCLA (13-11, 8-9) is in ninth place and still has a shot at the playoffs. The top eight teams reach the playoffs.

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