By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
Is there any doubt the University of Hawai'i is playing lights-out volleyball lately?
The Warriors overcame a power outage that dimmed the Stan Sheriff Center for 23 minutes and their own power failure in Game 3 for a 30-28, 30-22, 27-30, 30-25 victory over Pacific last night.
"We're a mentally tired team right now," said UH coach Mike Wilton, noting many of his players spent the week taking make-up tests because of their busy road schedule. "But we got a 'W,' and that's what matters the most."
By winning their seventh in a row, the Warriors improved to 17-5 overall and 11-5 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Tigers are 14-10 and 8-7.
Once again jump-started by jump serves, the Warriors disrupted the Tigers' reconfigured offense — outside hitter Nils Dauburs moved to middle blocker and former Saint Louis School standout Brian Zodrow made his first career start — to win the first two games.
In Game 3, Costas Theocharidis hammered a kill, giving the Warriors a 6-5 lead, when the court lights flickered and then the arena went dark.
"There's something electrifying about Costas that affects the lights," UH team captain Eyal Zimet said, although the official cause was listed as a power outage on UH's Lower Campus.
The generator restored power to the corridor lights, but the mercury lights that illuminate the court needed to cool for 15 minutes before restarting.
While the Warriors stretched and refreshed their strategy during the break, the Tigers gathered for an impromptu dance contest, which was highlighted by head coach Joe Wortmann's robotic moves.
"That's what a coach needs to do," Wortmann said. "Whatever it takes to get your team motivated and loose and playing well."
The break appeared to energize the Tigers, who scored the first three points after play resumed. They led by as much as 23-17 en route to extending the match.
But the Warriors relied on their jump serves to regain control. They finished with a season-high 12 aces, led by middle blocker Delano Thomas' five.
"I've been hitting it as hard as I can," Thomas said. "I've always been confident with my serves, but now they're going in more."
Pedro Azenha, a freshman from Brazil, added four aces, finishing with seven during the two-match series. He started in place of ailing Tony Ching, who was absent because of flu-like symptoms.
"Serving is something I've worked on since I was 14," he said. "That's one way to make points."
Although the Tigers' passing improved from Friday's match, Wortmann said: "Without a doubt, Hawai'i is the best serving team in the league. We passed better, but they still had 12 aces."
The Warriors' tough serves forced Tiger setter Chris Tamas to repeatedly chase down errant passes.
"That's the best serving team I've seen since I've been in the league, and this is my fourth year in the league," Tamas said. "Our team came out ready to fight, but they just took it to us."
After the match, UH's Matt Bender break-danced, finishing with a head-spinning move. On this night, the last dance was saved for the Warriors.
Box Scorethe.honoluluadvertiser.com/dailypix/2003/Mar/23/volleybox.gif
HOWEVER, I haven't seen another team have as much fun as I saw on the webcast from Saturday night's game. The team circle dance, while being down 2 games to none nonetheless, showed me that the Tigers enjoy the game more than anyone else at least in the MPSF. Even Coach Wortman got into it to loosen his team up. The tigers came out with a better attitude and started to play together. They are going to need to pull it together for the final few weeks of the season if they are going to have a shot at making the playoffs. Good luck to the Tigers and all the teams in the MPSF as it gets quite tight down the stretch.