Night 2: UCLA @ Hawaii

[ACE]

Hawaii wins games 1 and 2 (30-24, 30-23)

UCLA leads game 3 22-18

[ACE]

Hawaii on a 3-0 run...22-21 UCLA

[ACE]

Game 3 tied at 25

[ACE]

Hawaii leads game 3: 27-26

TO UCLA

[ACE]

Hawaii Sweeps

30-24, 30-23, 30-28

[Deleted]

Hawaii should be able to run the table with matches against Loyola, Pacific, Stanford, and UCSD in the next few weeks, before facing BYU to end the season.

[sexy]

nice win by hawaii -- and dang - i didnt think ucla would be 5-9 in the mpsf and hawaii out blocking their opponents in so many matches in a row either

da box score

www.hawaiiathletics.com/media/Stats/Vball/031106.HTM

[UHvbFan]

UH sweeps UCLA for ninth win in row

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Scratching a 20-year itch, the University of Hawai'i volleyball team completed a sweep of a two-match series against UCLA with last night's 30-24, 30-23, 30-28 victory before 3,821 in the Stan Sheriff Center.

UCLA, which has won 18 national titles under coach Al Scates, had dominated the rivalry. This time, the Warriors made all the right moves — and counter moves — to win their ninth in a row and improve to 13-4 overall and 11-3 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

"This is huge for us," UH libero Alfee Reft said.

It did not diminish the Warriors' celebration that the Bruins, who fell to 12-11 and 5-9, were forced to play three freshmen, including setter Matt Wade. The Bruins' floor leader, setter Dennis Gonzalez, suffered a sprained left ankle in Friday's match, an injury that could keep him from playing for at least another week.

"If they put six 12-year-olds on the court, and they're wearing UCLA emblems, they're gonna be a good team, and they're gonna play hard and they're gonna be well coached," UH setter Brian Beckwith said. "They're UCLA."

UH outside hitter Matt Carere added: "They have a great system. A lot of great players want to go there because it's UCLA. They always play tough, and they were good tonight. But we one-upped them."

The Warriors were able to solve the Bruins' revolving lineups — they used a different one for each game — and evolving strategies. The Bruins opened with a power game focusing on perimeter attackers Damien Scott, Paul George and Steve Klosterman.

By Game 3, the Bruins, adjusting to Wade's high but slow sets, opted for a taller attack, inserting 6-foot-9 outside hitter Sean O'Malley and 6-7 middle Jamie Diefenbach into the lineup. They also changed the serving techniques of two of their players.

The Bruins led by as much as 22-18 in the third game before the Warriors, behind Beckwith's crafty decisions, began to respond.

In Friday's match, Beckwith repeatedly fed pipe sets to José José Delgado in the middle of the back row. Off a running takeoff, Delgado had the option of slamming spikes through the gaps or rolling shots over the block. After a night of studying videotapes of Delgado, the Bruins decided to bunch up the defense in anticipation of pipe attacks.

Psyche.

"They didn't set the pipe as much as the first time we played them," Wade said. "It took us out of our game. We were still bunching. The lack of pipe setting, it opened the way for them to bang (spikes down) the line on us. We weren't able to get out there on the pin."

With spy-versus-spy mentality, Beckwith thought he knew what the Bruins thought they knew. "We tried to keep them guessing," Beckwith said. "With these back-to-back matches, the scouting can be so right on sometimes. They almost know where I'm going to set before I do. I took the liberty of scouting myself and changing my game. Not so much to the point where my offense was different, but to where my situational thinking was different. A hitter has to make the right shots, and I have to make the right decisions."

On consecutive plays in Game 3, Beckwith looked one way and set the other. The Bruins learned their block could not out-race a quick low set.

Lauri Hakala hammered 16 kills for UH, and Carere added 12. Delgado, hitting mostly from the left side, had 11 kills.

The key, UCLA's Scates said, is "Hawai'i has the right offense for its personnel. The nice thing is they do so well in transition. When they dig a ball, it's a nice high dig, and somebody can set and somebody can take a quality swing. If you look at the stats, you can say, 'Oh, boy, we out-dug them by nine digs.' But we didn't get as many quality swings as they did because they had better ball-control. They were getting some quality transition sets."

UH coach Mike Wilton said the intensity of the match left the Warriors spent.

"I thought we got emotionally drained," Wilton said. "I looked up at Brian (Beckwith) in Game 3, and he looked really drawn. Usually, he's aggressive out there. We fought through that."

www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060312/SPORTS0202/603120375/1032

[UHvbFan]

Hawaii sweeps UCLA

Hawaii's 3-0 victory completes the Warriors' fourth season sweep of the Bruins in 26 years

By Cindy Luis
[e-mail]

And there wasn't even a blue moon.

On a night that saw UC Irvine again take down No. 1 Brigham Young and take over the conference lead, Hawaii turned in an equally impressive -- and very rare -- feat.

The fourth-ranked Warriors swept the league series against UCLA for just the fourth time in the 26-year rivalry, and moved into second in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings via a 30-24, 30-23, 30-28 victory over the No. 9 Bruins. It was also just the fourth time that Hawaii downed UCLA in three.

The Warriors (13-4, 11-3 MPSF) again rode the arms of their quick outside attackers, with Lauri Hakala putting down a match-high 16 kills and Matt Carere 14, including the match-ender. Jose Delgado added 11 kills in Hawaii's ninth straight victory in front of 3,821 (4,737 tickets) at the Stan Sheriff Center.

"We were emotionally flat tonight," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton. "We did some nice playing when we needed to. We seemed a day late and a dollar short throughout Game 3.

"Once again, they did what needed to be done. UCLA is a good volleyball team. They're not done yet. They're dangerous."

The Bruins (12-11, 5-9), losing their fifth consecutive MPSF match, are fighting to make the playoffs and are tied for ninth with Pacific. Only the top eight teams advance to the MPSF postseason tournament.

That, however, is not Hawaii's worry. The Warriors remained in contention for their first regular-season MPSF title since 1996 by being efficient early in Games 1 and 2, and playing with emotion when having to rally late in Game 3.

Down 2-0 for the second night in a row, UCLA led Game 3 from the first serve until it was 26-26. A kill by Hakala put Hawaii out in front for the first time at 27-26 and, following a Bruin timeout, Carere and Dio Dante teamed to stuff Sean O'Malley for Hawaii's ninth block and a two-point lead.

Steve Klosterman put down his 10th kill to pull the Bruins to within a point only to have Carere's kill give Hawaii its first shot at match point at 29-27. Nick Scheftic's kill again brought UCLA to within one, but Carere finished it off with his last kill.

"It was intense," said Carere, who had two of the team's four aces. "It took us until about 20 (in Game 3) to wake up.

"To win against a quality opponent like UCLA is always big."

"It's huge," added UH setter Brian Beckwith. "We had that slow start at the end of Game 3 and luckily that push at the end was enough this time. But it was almost too close for comfort.

"It's just a hunger and we don't want to disappoint ourselves, first and foremost. We play for each other and for the fans. Without a doubt, we have to give the fans a lot of the last few points."

Hawaii trailed by as many as four points (22-18) before making a surge. At that point, the Warriors had committed five hitting errors, the last when Dante hit wide on an open look.

They didn't have another error the rest of the way, putting down nine kills with no errors in 14 swings.

"We wanted to win in three really badly," Dante said. "It made us angry that we gave them a game (Friday). We needed to step up our game at the end."

Hakala was in on five of the team's nine blocks. UCLA had three blocks.

The Bruins won the dig battle 40-31. UCLA libero Tony Ker had 10 digs, Hawaii's libero Alfred Reft had 11.

With senior setter Dennis Gonzalez sidelined (sprained left ankle), the Bruins went with freshman Matt Wade, the son of former Wahine All-American Rocky Elias.

"Hawaii came up with the big plays at the end," Ker said. "Toward the end, we started losing momentum. There was a lot of pressure on Matt. We didn't have another backup (setter) and I think he did well."

Notes: Hawaii has eight MPSF matches remaining. Should the Warriors end up tying with UC Irvine, Hawaii has the tie-breaker on point differential; the teams split in January, with each winning in a sweep. ... Hawaii also swept the series with UCLA in 1988 in Klum Gym, in 2002 at the Sheriff Center and 2003 in Pauley Pavilion.

starbulletin.com/2006/03/12/sports/story01.html

[volleynutt]

was there any doubt