Teams go to great lengths to play in volleyball ev

[V]

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

It took the Ball State men's volleyball team more than 10 hours to travel from Muncie, Ind., to Honolulu.
That was a shortcut compared to Shanghai (China) Oriental's 13-hour trek. Penn State's long day's journey into night — with stopovers in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles — clocked in at 17 hours.

Indeed, it is not easy — in the geographical and competitive sense — to play in the Outrigger Hotels Volleyball Invitational, a three-night round robin that begins tonight in the Stan Sheriff Center.

Not only does a team from the Midwest or East need a frequent-flier account, it also needs impressive volleyball credentials.

"The original game plan," said UH coach Mike Wilton, who co-founded the invitational in 1995, "was to invite the previous year's winner from each region (in the East and Midwest)."

That usually meant that East and Midwest teams that "go to the (NCAA) final four will get an invitation to Hawai'i" the following year, Wilton said.

This year's field includes three of the final four teams — 2002 national champion UH, Penn State and Ball State.

Until this year, 18-time national champion UCLA earned the fourth Outrigger berth. The Bruins have won five of the eight Outrigger titles, and own the best overall tournament record (20-3).

But because Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams play two regular-season matches against every league rival, Wilton believed, "that was enough," and decided to scratch UCLA from this year's guest list. Left unsaid was the exclusion prevents the Bruins, who won't play in Hawai'i this year, from using the trip to recruit Isle prospects.

Shanghai Oriental, which has five members of China's national team, replaced UCLA.

Inviting the Chinese team enables UH to reciprocate for November's exhibition tour in Shanghai, and introduces the international style to Isle volleyball fans.

"It's going to be good for the Hawai'i crowd," UH outside hitter Costas Theocharidis said.

Wilton said only a handful of teams have turned down invitations to the tournament. Last year, Ohio State declined, citing the strain of missing class time.

"You're missing four days of school, that's true," Wilton said. "I can't get around that. But you get to play in the best non-playoff tournament there is in men's volleyball. If it's not, I'd like to know what is."

Outrigger provides four nights of free hotel rooms for a visiting team, which also receives about $9,000 apiece in appearance fees.

"That really puts a healthy dent in the flight costs," Wilton said.

Last year, Penn State, which entered the Outrigger as the nation's No. 1 team, battled jet lag in losing its first two matches.

Still, Penn State coach Mark Pavlik welcomed a return, even though it meant a condensed schedule, only one full practice in Hawai'i and a five-hour time adjustment. It will be 12:30 a.m. back home when Penn State takes on UH tonight.

Pavlik told his players: "Look, this is one of the challenges you face when you want to play good teams. You've got to overcome jet lag. We can't miss that many hours to come here on a Sunday to acclimate. Do the best you can."

Pavlik said the Outrigger has prepared the Lions for tournaments. "We've had the opportunity to play some really good volleyball in the beginning of the year, which really helps us," Pavlik said.

UH's Theocharidis said the Outrigger Invitational serves another purpose: revenge. The Warriors have won the Outrigger only three times, finishing runner-up to UCLA the last three years.

Theocharidis said the Warriors still are smarting from losing two matches to Shanghai Oriental in November.

"The Chinese team beat us," he said. "We owe them one."

The teams meet Saturday night.

Theocharidis said Penn State, in turn, wants payback for last year's home loss to UH in the national semifinals.

"Penn State will try to take revenge," Theocharidis said, "but we're a good team. I think we're on a roll right now."

Teams' roster
the.honoluluadvertiser.com/dailypix/2003/Jan/16/sports1.gif

[V]

Shanghai squad could surprise

Shanghai Oriental's volleyball skills and unique style will entertain fans at UH's Outrigger Classic

By Grace Wen
[e-mail]

Everything they do will look a bit strange at first.

From the way the players celebrate scoring a point to the pace of volleyball it plays, the Shanghai Oriental volleyball team will do things not seen before at the Stan Sheriff Center.

It is the exhibition team of the ninth annual Outrigger Classic for good reason. Volleyball fans will love the quick, complicated level of volleyball Shanghai plays. The precision, finesse and quickness in its offense are the results of countless hours of training.

Shanghai kicks off the Outrigger Classic today at 5 p.m. against Ball State. Hawaii and Penn State follow at 7:30 p.m.

Though none of the matches will count toward the overall record of the other participating teams, Shanghai is not a team to be taken lightly.

"It's a great challenge for us," senior Costas Theocharidis said. "They have all these experienced, mature players. The coach was coach of the national team. They're a really good team. They practice really hard. We practiced with them. They're a good, good team."

Shanghai brought five Chinese national team members here, two more than Hawaii faced last November during part one of the cultural exchange. Head coach Shen FuLin has logged time in the past with the national team as a coach and a setter.

Like Hawaii, Shanghai is not terribly big (the average height is 6-foot-3 and the tallest player is 6-7) but it compensates for lack of height with solid fundamentals. There are thousands of training hours among the players who eat, breathe and sleep volleyball at the Shanghai Sports Institute, an athletic complex an hour from the main part of the city.

Shanghai practices six days a week, two times a day. The players get one day a week to go home and be with their parents or girlfriends. None of them have siblings, as China's burgeoning population limits each family to one child.

Life at the institute is the inverse of most American universities. Classes are fit in around practice and playing schedules. Every player on the 12-man roster has been at the training facility a minimum of four years and some have been there for over a decade. From this group, two or three will stay with the team as coaches after they finish playing.

Xu WenFei, the captain of the team and a former national team member, will probably take that path. Xu started playing volleyball in the third grade and has been training full-time since age 14. He is the team elder at 26. The youngest members are 19 (Cheng JiaHao and Wang ZhiTeng) and are part of a system in which the older players mentor the younger ones until they retire.

It is Xu's second trip to Hawaii. Xu came in 1998 with the Chinese national team to play the U.S. national team in a match at the Blaisdell Arena. The others had never been to Hawaii.

The players watched their first hula show yesterday, and today's agenda includes a Pearl Harbor visit. It is one of the few times the team will do something not related to volleyball on a trip. Shanghai hopes the activities won't be too much of a distraction. It knows Hawaii will be much tougher to beat at home.

"It's possible that when Hawaii came out they weren't adjusted to the environment," Xu said. "It's going to be harder here. This is their home court."

The Warriors began the first part of this cultural exchange last November. Hawaii spent nine days in China and scrimmaged with Shanghai in two matches and lost both. Xu admits that Shanghai didn't think much of Hawaii's level at first but was impressed enough by the end of the trip that a better relationship between the teams was forged.

Shanghai, however, left a lasting impression on the Warriors.

"I hope the crowd comes to watch the game," Theocharidis said. "It's the same thing like when the Wahine played the Russian team. I don't think Hawaii has been exposed to volleyball at the international level. It's kind of exciting to watch them. They play really fast.

"When they pass well, you just lose them. It's kind of confusing for our block. We played them three or four times, so we know what they can do. They (Ball State and Penn State) are going to be lost. They're going to have trouble."

[Just maybe]

V said:

Until this year, 18-time national champion UCLA earned the fourth Outrigger berth. The Bruins have won five of the eight Outrigger titles, and own the best overall tournament record (20-3).

But because Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams play two regular-season matches against every league rival, Wilton believed, "that was enough," and decided to scratch UCLA from this year's guest list. Left unsaid was the exclusion prevents the Bruins, who won't play in Hawai'i this year, from using the trip to recruit Isle prospects.

Could it be UCLA wasn't invited because UH took their ball and went home. Maybe they tired of losing their own tournament to the Bruins.

[fan2]

Maybe, although I think that was just an added bonus. I really think that the school wants to strengthen their ties with the east. Anyways, I'm kinda sad not to see UCLA- it became a cool tradition.

[roy]

Yeah, it is really sad that UCLA didn't come. Its kind of hard to root for other teams. I couldn't make tonight's match, but usually, I cheer for Hawaii and whoever is playing against UCLA. Now, it makes it difficult.

But from what people have said, Wilton wants to strengthen ties with Asia. Dobelle wants to focus on Asia as a strategic point for the university.

[g]

V said:

Like Hawaii, Shanghai is not terribly big (the average height is 6-foot-3 and the tallest player is 6-7) but it compensates for lack of height with solid fundamentals.

Perhaps true but except for their setter (6'0") their shortest player on their starting lineup was 6'6"-the rest were 6'7"-6'8"/

[bd]

Wasn't Scates upset by Vili et al when they lost last year..making all kinds of comments, causing Wilton to respond with the infamous "if wishes were dreams...." speech? I can't remember exactly how it went but we all got a kick out of it. Nordberg even imitated it at the banquet.

[roy]

No, Scates loved Vili. There was an article in the Daily Bruin about how UCLA lost to Hawaii. It seemed as if he was making excuses about the loss by saying that he was without his best player(s). Hawaii responded by saying that they beat them so convincingly that having their stars wouldn't matter.

As for Vili, he just commented on the "Samoan" that was dancing around. Since the article was already sided with a negative tone, Vili was offended since he is from Fiji.

Scates responded to Hawaii's comments by saying he would not apogize for saying that the match might have been different if his best players were in there. He did apologize to Vili for the mistake. In that apology, he mentioned that he loved Vili and would love to have someone like that running around for the UCLA team.

[bud]

I was just thinking last year when a totally classless Scates was making excuses why they lost to a better Hawaii team, why invite them back?

[Barefoot In Kailua]

Exactly, The Warriors have nothing to prove by beating up on the Bruins. I like this year's field, I'm not missing the Bruins ( and their excuses ) at all.

[ACE]

It seems like Shanghai is way better than the bruins are also. I also didn't like Scates remarks after they lost to Hawaii but hey Hawaii ended up Champs...