Maybe it is time to further examine the certainty of death and taxes.

Nothing is guaranteed after University of Hawai'i volleyball coach Mike Wilton yesterday missed his first practice as a coach or player since the third grade. Wilton, who is suffering from flu-like symptoms, went home before yesterday's afternoon practice.

"All the time I've been with him, he's never — ever — missed a practice," said associate head coach Tino Reyes, who has known Wilton for more than 25 years.

Wilton is hopeful of coaching in tonight's exhibition rematch against British Columbia in the Stan Sheriff Center.

Wilton said he began to feel ill during Wednesday's match. Yesterday, he wore long pants, a T-shirt, regular shirt and a sweatshirt.

"And I was still cold," said Wilton, who also had a headache. "I was just shaking, with the chills. And my skin hurts."

As the day progressed, Wilton said, "it kept getting worse. I was going to try and be stubborn. But I got to thinking: Maybe I'm being selfish. Maybe I'm contagious. How smart would that be to go into the gym?"

He said he mapped out yesterday's practice, then turned over the leadership to Reyes.

Reyes, in turn, put the responsibility on the players.

"They're in charge," Reyes said. "If they want to have a good team, they have to practice hard."

Left-side hitter Eric Kalima, a co-captain, said: "We've got Tino and Jason (Salmeri, an assistant coach). They know what to do. It doesn't matter if all three coaches are here or not here. We're going to practice hard. We know what to do. We know what we need to work on."

Against the T-Birds, the Warrior struggled with their serves, passes (especially against short float serves) and left-side hitting.

Jake Schkud, who was bothered by flu-like symptoms, and freshman Ernie Vidinha had negative hitting percentages. Mark Ribeiro had six kills in nine swings, but was out of position on some block attempts.

Wilton said he does not expect Schkud to play tonight.

Wilton said Ribeiro, Vidinha and Matthew Vanzant will rotate at the L1, the first left-side position. Kalima is the L2, the position that is regarded as a primary passer.

After nearly a one-month break, the Warriors reconvened Monday. They had two practices before Wednesday's match.

Wilton said some of the players might have been battling the butterflies in that first match.

"We made a lot of mental mistakes," Ribeiro said, "but we'll work on them."

For the most part, libero Ric Cervantes played well in his UH debut. "I have to work on a couple of things for sure," Cervantes said.

In high school in Santa Barbara, Cervantes answered to the nickname "Super Freak" because his middle name is James.

"Ric James," Cervantes said. "My parents were kind of interesting with my name."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.