Warriors' mission is to reach conference title match

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

After scribbling several scenarios, University of Hawai'i men's volleyball coach Mike Wilton concluded the defending national champion Warriors will need to win their five remaining regular-season matches and reach the finals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament to earn a return trip to the NCAA final four.

Or, to simplify matters, Wilton said, "We could win the (MPSF) Tournament and get the automatic berth."

Those are the options for the Warriors, who have won eight in a row to improve to 12-5 in the MPSF. Their final five regular-season matches, beginning with league doormat UC San Diego (1-16) tonight, are against three teams with the worst MPSF records.

Barring a complete implosion, Pepperdine, with a 15-1 MPSF record, should win the regular-season title.

Second-place Brigham Young is 14-4, but closes the regular season with two matches against Long Beach State (9-7) and two against Pepperdine. A complicated tie-breaking formula would give BYU the edge over UH, should the two teams finish the regular season with identical records.

If UH finishes second, the likelihood is BYU will end up third, paving the way for a meeting in the MPSF Tournament's semifinals.

"All I know," Wilton said, "is we have to play in the conference finals. Minimally, that's what we have to do."

Wilton prepared the Warriors for the playoffs by using 11 of the 12 active players in Wednesday's three-game sweep of UC San Diego. Outside hitter Costas Theocharidis, UH's best player, was the only one not to play.

"Our goal was to play a lot of people," Wilton said, referring to why Theocharidis was rested. "The way the league is, I was wondering if we would ever be able to do that."

When asked if he felt the Tritons felt slighted by not facing the Warriors' best, Wilton said, "I don't think so. I think they were actually kind of pleased (Theocharidis) didn't play. They're not unhappy about it at all."

Second-year freshman Matt Bender, usually the serving specialist, replaced Theocharidis at opposite hitter. Bender had eight kills and six digs. Although Bender might start again tonight, left-side hitter Pedro Azenha will be Theocharidis' understudy in the playoffs "just because he's more experienced," Wilton said.

Azenha is a freshman, but he has played for Brazil's junior national team.

In the first match, the Tritons were able to effectively attack from the middle. But Wilton said that defensive lapse is correctable.

"We could have done a better job of blocking," he said. "But I'm pleased we were able to play everybody, and play some pretty good volleyball, too."

MPSF STANDINGS

MPSF Overall

TEAM W L Pct. W L

Pepperdine 15 1 .938 18 2

Brigham Young 14 4 .778 16 5

Hawai'i 12 5 .706 18 5

Long Beach State 9 7 .563 15 8

Northridge 10 8 .556 15 9

Pacific 8 7 .533 14 10

Stanford 8 7 .533 11 10

Irvine 9 8 .500 16 8

UCLA 8 9 .471 13 11

Santa Barbara 4 14 .308 9 17

USC 2 14 .125 5 19

San Diego 1 16 .059 5 17

Yesterday's results

Irvine def. UCSB, 30-18, 30-23, 30-28

Northridge def. UCLA, 30-26, 27-30, 34-32, 30-25

Today's matches

Hawai'i at San Diego

Long Beach State at Brigham Young

USC at Stanford

Pepperdine at Pacific