Warriors look to pass test
By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
The past two days, University of Hawai'i volleyball coach Mike Wilton has been asked repeatedly how his second-ranked team can rebound from last week's consecutive losses to No. 7 Cal State Northridge.
"The problem with playing Northridge," Wilton said, "was Northridge. We're not playing Northridge next."
Tonight and tomorrow night the Warriors play road matches against unranked Southern California, which swept Northridge last month.
"That tells you something about what we're facing," Wilton said.
Through the early 1990s, USC was one of volleyball's elite, winning four NCAA titles. But the Trojans struggled in recent years, when they tried to build without international players — a strategy that had disastrous results. UCLA, Pepperdine and Long Beach scooped up the best area talent. Now, under second-year head coach Turhan Douglas, they are recruiting heavily in Latin America.
In recent matches, Pacific, UCLA and Northridge exposed the Warriors' vulnerability to jump serves. With jump serves, the error rate is higher. But the tradeoff — tough serves lead to bad passes that lead to fewer offensive options — is a gamble opponents are willing to take.
"I get so many e-mails asking, 'Why would you jump serve?' " Wilton said. "My response is: Do you want (to serve soft and) have the other team hit the ball down your throat or do you want a chance to play some defense?"
The Trojans' three outside attackers — left-side hitters Joao Grangeiro and Pedro Leal and opposite hitter Blake Tippett — are jump servers. "They're probably honing their serves right now," Wilton said.
Wilton said primary passers Alfred Reft and José José Delgado and secondary passers Delano Thomas and Pedro Azenha worked extensively on receiving serves during Saturday's practice. The Warriors did not practice yesterday.
"We got a lot of work in (Saturday)," Wilton said, despite the on-campus distractions. There was a large turnout to watch USC's national championship football team compete in an intrasquad scrimmage.
Wilton said the Warriors spent a large portion of practice getting acclimated to USC's North Gym. The 1,600-seat Lyon Center is available to the Trojans only on weekends. During the week it is used for intramurals.
Wilton said his players worked on adjusting to North Gym's low ceiling — roughly the same height as the base of the Stan Sheriff Center's hanging scoreboard. All shots off the ceiling are in play, including ones hitting the cross pipes.
"It's not so hard," Wilton said. "We'll be fine."
Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8051.
