Hawai'i volleyball team rolls over USC in 3 games
Advertiser Staff
The University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team wiped away the maka piapia and then wiped out Southern California in a 30-18, 30-27, 31-29 victory in Los Angeles last night.
"We were narcoleptic for a while," UH coach Mike Wilton said. "But then we woke up, and it turned out to be a pretty nice match."
WILTON
In defeating the Trojans for the second night in a row, the Warriors improved to 13-5 overall, 10-4 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and 2-2 on this eight-day road trip, the longest of the regular season.
The Trojans fell to 6-14 and 4-9. They take a week off for spring break.
Meanwhile, the Warriors return to Honolulu this afternoon. Wilton predicted that "none (of the players) wants to feast his eyes on me once we land. It's been a long trip."
The Warriors easily won Game 1, hitting .667, but then fell behind 16-6 in the second game.
"There was a lot of fatigue on our part," Wilton said.
Wilton replaced freshman setter Brian Beckwith and outside hitter Jose Jose Delgado with seniors Kimo Tuyay and Arri Jeschke, respectively.
Tuyay was the starting setter the previous three years, including the national championship season in 2002, before ceding the job to Beckwith. Last night, Tuyay set quickly to Mauli'a LaBarre and Joshua Stanhiser in the middle and high to Pedro Azenha and Delano Thomas at the corners.
"Kimo stepped it up when we needed it," LaBarre said. "He had a fire going."
The Warriors rallied, scoring 15 of the next 19 points to take a 21-20 lead in Game 2. The score was tied at 25 when Thomas and LaBarre teamed on a block and then an ensuing Trojan hitting error moved the Warriors out of reach.
Tuyay and Jeschke, who accurately passed the Trojans' jump serves, started Game 3.
"They earned that," Wilton said. "When you play four times on a road trip, it takes an entire roster to get it done. I think a lot of guys were tired."
Azenha, a 6-foot-7 sophomore from Brazil, had a team-high 14 kills. More importantly, his sizzling jump serves caused the Trojans to pass erratically. Azenha had six aces, including three in a row.
"He did a nice job," Wilton said.
With Jeschke and libero Alfred Reft lofting accurate passes, Tuyay was able to feed quick sets to the middle. LaBarre had eight kills and no errors. He hit .889. Stanhiser had six kills and hit .625.
"The middles were available," Wilton said. "That gave us a lot of options."
LaBarre said: "We were getting some good sets."
Opposite hitter Blake Tippett led the Trojans with 14 kills.
UH falls to No. 5
The Warriors dropped into a tie for fifth place in this week's USA Today/American Volleyball Coaches Association top-15 poll.
The Warriors were ranked No. 1 for two consecutive weeks before losing to UCLA Feb. 29 and dropping to No. 2 in last week's poll. They lost two road matches to Cal State Northridge last week before defeating Southern California last night.
"I guess that's about right based on what's happened recently," UH coach Mike Wilton said of the Warriors' poll position.
UH's victory last night came after the voting deadline.
UCLA and Brigham Young are tied for No. 1, with each receiving 231 points. UCLA received nine No. 1 votes from the panel of 16 head coaches; BYU received the remaining seven No. 1 votes.
Long Beach State is third and Cal State Northridge is No. 4.
UH plays BYU next week in the Stan Sheriff Center.
USA Today/AVCA
Division I-II Men's Coaches Top 15 Poll
Rank School Points W-L
1-tie UCLA (9) 231 16-3
1-tie BYU (7) 231 13-3
3 Long Beach State 210 15-4
4 Cal St. Northridge 184 13-6
5-tie Hawai'i 172 11-5
5-tie Pepperdine 172 11-4
7 UC Santa Barbara 139 10-8
8 Ball State 129 13-2
9 UC Irvine 91 8-12
10 IPFW 90 10-2
11 Stanford 80 7-12
12 Penn State 65 10-5
13 Ohio State 56 11-6
14 USC 27 6-12
15 UC San Diego 16 6-13
Others receiving points: Loyola-Chicago 14, Rutgers-Newark 5, Lewis 5, Pacific 3.
