A running start
By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Hawaii's Andre Breuer, left, and Chris Kosty fail on a block attempt last night against Penn State.
Hawaii outlasts Penn State in five in its season opener
By Cindy Luis
Star-BulletinThey survived a trial by fire without getting burned. The Rainbows had to sift through a large pile of ashes before finding the right spark against Penn State last night at the Special Events Arena.
It took three hours and a minute of playing with combinations - some more incendiary than others - before Hawaii was able to pull out a 16-14, 13-15, 10-15, 15-10, 17-15 victory over the Nittany Lions in the Outrigger Hotels Volleyball Invitational.
In the end, Hawaii found a hot hand in newcomer Andre Breuer. Three of his match-high 32 kills resulted in three of the Rainbows' final five points as they rallied to win Game 5. With UH President Kenneth Mortimer leading the standing ovation through four aloha ball serves, Breuer and freshman Jorge Alifonso teamed to block Penn State's Tony Mazzullo and give the Rainbows their eighth consecutive season-opening victory.
By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Hawaii's Dejan Miladinovic returns a shot in last night's match against Penn State.
"I'm very happy we won this match," said Breuer, a 6-foot-8 blocker from Germany. "We didn't play perfectly, and if we want to win the (NCAA) championship this year, we're going to have to play much better."That we still won, without Naveh (senior hitter Naveh Milo), said a lot about this team. With Naveh out, we needed two games to find another combination."
Milo apparently pulled a quadriceps muscle in his right leg and left with the Rainbows ahead, 14-7, in Game 1. He returned after the Nittany Lions closed to 14-12 and helped Hawaii pull it out, 16-14, before leaving for good.
Milo is listed as doubtful for tonight's match with Ball State and could also be out against UCLA tomorrow. The Hawaii-Ball State match follows the 5 p.m. contest between UCLA and Penn State, a rematch of the NCAA Final Four semifinal won by the Bruins in five games in May.
Last night, UCLA needed just 80 minutes to sweep Ball State, 15-2, 15-4, 15-8.
"My only thought about UCLA right now is to wonder if we'll have any legs left after the game we had tonight," said Penn State coach Mark Pavlik. "The thing about Hawaii is we knew nothing about them. We were trying to figure them out as we were playing. Naveh was really the only guy we knew and then Mike (Wilton) takes him out.
"It was a pretty good match for two teams coming right out of the blocks. My main concern was playing hard from beginning to end and I thought we did that. Of course, I'd much rather have the win, but it was absolutely a great way to start the season."
"For a first match, it was pretty tremendous," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "Our team had to survive lots of situations and scenarios that we hadn't played for. Naveh is our leader, our captain, and that was a tremendous obstacle to overcome.
"I think it was a real tribute to the character of our young men, being so new to each other, that they came back into it and wouldn't let it slip away."
Hawaii started five newcomers, including two players who joined the team about 10 days ago and took part in only eight practice sessions: freshman setter Jorge Perez and junior hitter Chris Kosty. In Game 1, Perez connected early and often with 6-7 freshman Dejan Miladinovic (10 kills) and Breuer (nine kills).
Hawaii had 10 blocks in Game 1 to Penn State's six, but the Nittany Lions outblocked the Rainbows for the match, 21-20.
"Our guys started hitting angles and hit the shots they needed to," Penn State veteran setter Daniel Pollock said. "We really didn't want to play Game 5. The way we were rolling, I thought we'd take it in four. But somewhere in the middle (of Game 4), we kind of lost the momentum and never got it back. I think we let up and were waiting for them to lose it instead of us going out and winning it."
Penn State led, 7-5, in Game 4, before Hawaii tied it at 8. The Lions closed to 11-10, but didn't score again as Breuer had three kills and teamed with Miladinovic for a block. Alifonso stuffed Mazzullo to force rally scoring.
Game 5 was tied six times, the last at 15-15. Breuer took over, allowing the Rainbows to improve to 12-1 in season openers at home.
Brad Miller led Penn State with 27 kills, followed by David Gealey (25) and Mazzullo (24).
UCLA 3, Ball State 0: Adam Naeve had 17 kills and Evan Thatcher added 11 as the Bruins easily dispatched the Cardinals.
Jason Fehr led Ball State with 10 kills.
UCLA set the tone early, jumping out to an 11-0 lead in Game 1.
Hawaii def. Penn State, 16-14, 13-15, 10-15, 15-10, 17-15
Nittany Lions (0-1 overall, 0-1 OHVI)
g k e at pct. bs ba d
Schall 5 0 0 1 .000 0 0 0
Gealey 5 25 10 60 .250 0 2 9
Miller 5 27 11 58 .276 2 8 9
Pollock 5 3 2 11 .091 0 1 7
Mazzullo 5 24 7 46 .370 0 4 15
Pampena 5 16 5 26 .423 2 8 5
Martorana 5 13 5 25 .320 1 8 10
Whitescarver 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0
Lapp 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0
Hoechst 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0
Houston 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0
Munger 1 0 0 0 .000 0 1 0
Totals 5 108 40 227 .300 5 32 55
g k e at pct. bs ba dAces-PS (3): Mazzullo 2, Miller 1. UH (0). Assists-PS (103): Pollock 94, Mazzullo 4, Schall 2, Miller 2, Gealy 1. UH (112): Perez 36, Kosty 4, Kuo 3, Miladinovic 2, Lockwood 1, Milo 1, Breuer 1, Alifonso 1, Leoni 1, Kaven 1, Salmeri 1.
Miladinovic 5 31 9 54 .407 0 6 0
Perez 5 10 2 17 .471 0 3 0
Kosty 4 10 5 26 .192 0 2 0
Lockwood 1 2 1 6 .167 0 1 0
Kuo 3 5 3 10 .200 0 0 0
Milo 1 2 2 7 .000 0 1 0
Breuer 5 32 12 68 .294 2 10 0
Alifonson 4 16 6 29 .345 1 5 0
Leoni 3 8 3 15 .333 1 1 0
Kaven 2 0 3 3 -1.00 0 0 0
Salmeri 3 5 3 15 .133 0 3 0
Totals 5 121 49 250 .288 4 32 0Att-6,861 (5,667 turnstile). T-3:01. Officials: Wayne Lee, Ernest Ho.
Statistical leaders
Kills-BSU (41): Jason Fehr 10, Brian Hughes 8, David Bik 6. UCLA (54): Adam Naeve 17, Evan Thatcher 11, Ben Moselle 8, Tom Stillwell 8, Fred Robins 2. Digs-BSU (28): J. Fehr 6, Mitch Sadowsky 6, Adam Havice 6, B. Hughes 4. UCLA (32): E. Thatcher 7, Brandon Taliaferro 6, B. Moselle 6, Mark Williams 5, F. Robins 2. Blocks-BSU (3 solo, 23 assisted): Pat Damm 1-2, B. Hughes 1-2, Tom Tegethoff 1-1, M. Sadowsky 0-5, D. Bik 0-4. UCLA (1-15): T. Stillwell 1-3, A. Naeve 0-4, B. Moselle 0-3, F. Robins 0-1. Aces-BSU (0). UCLA (10): B. Moselle 4, M. Williams 2, F. Robins 1. Assists-BSU (38): M. Sadowski 34. UCLA (51): B. Taliaferro 46.
