Hawai’i d. UCLA 1. 19-30, 30-26, 30-16, 30-25 2.
30-19, 30-20, 30-20
By Diamond Leung
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
UCLA knew that it was going to have a tough time against
Hawai’i. The injured Jonathan Acosta certainly couldn’t
do anything to help. Neither could Scott Morrow, who is also hurt
and didn’t make the trip. But could UCLA head coach Al
Scates, quite possibly the only hated man in Hawaii, mastermind a
couple of wins?
Nope.
The UCLA mystique, for once, wasn’t going to work.
Hawai’i was too much for the debilitated Bruins and sent UCLA
its worst loss in recent memory Sunday at the Stan Sheriff center
in Honolulu.
The No. 3 Warriors, with the 30-19, 30-20, 30-20 win, completed
a two-match sweep of No. 2 UCLA over the weekend. With the
victories, Hawai’i (19-6, 16-4 MPSF) leapfrogged the Bruins
(23-6, 15-5), who fell to third place in the conference. Two
matches remain for each team in the regular season.
“Hawai’i played it up as the gutty Warriors versus
the big bad Bruins, but no one has been able to stop them all
year,” UCLA head coach Al Scates said. “This is the
best I’ve seen them play in four years.”
The Bruins, without their top hitter and blocker, could only
watch as Warrior All-American outside hitter Costas Theocharidis
powered balls off their blocks. Theocharidis finished with a
match-high of 14 kills on Sunday after sending the Bruins running
for cover with 29 kills the night before in Hawai’i’s
19-30, 30-26, 30-16, 30-25 win.
The Bruins played many of their freshmen and struggled with
their hitting, registering a season-low .159 clip on Sunday.
“We could have beaten them with a full squad, but we
didn’t have that,” Scates added. “They had 8,000
people in the stands and five Samoan warriors with spears running
around.”
Hawai’i didn’t want to hear UCLA’s
excuses.
“We haven’t always had our full personnel. Sometimes
we’ve played without two starters,” middle blocker
Dejan Miladinovic told the Honolulu Advertiser. “Maybe UCLA
was Acosta-less, but I don’t care. So you know what? Tough.
That’s the league.”
Scates, the lord of 18 NCAA championship rings, scoffed at
conspiracy theorists who believe that he is laughing all the way
back to Westwood after purposely losing in order to sandbag
Hawai’i.
“We tried to win,” he said. “Now we’re
familiar with their tendencies. They haven’t seen our game
plan ““ the one I’ll use in the playoffs. That’s
when it really matters.”