Thursday, April 16, 1998
Gauchos will have
their hands full
with ’Bows
UH takes a seven-match
By Cindy Luis
winning streak into the first
round of the MPSF men's
volleyball tourney
Star-BulletinTiming is everything.
The struggles came early for the University of Hawaii men's volleyball team. Seven new players on a roster of 11, six languages, and four months to pull it together.
The fourth-ranked Rainbows have managed to add it all up at the right time, taking a seven-match winning streak into Saturday's first-round playoff match against UC Santa Barbara. The winner advances to next Thursday's Mountain Pacific Sports Federation semifinal against the winner of Saturday's Stanford-Pepperdine match, probably at top seed UCLA.
"I think we should beat Santa Barbara," said Rainbow blocker Andre Breuer, who had a match-high 29 kills against the Gauchos earlier this season. "Still, they are not to be underestimated. We have to be very careful.
"It was a tough match the last time (five games at UCSB Feb. 3), but if we play the way we've played the last couple of weeks, I expect us to win."
Expectations are high for Hawaii, which has won nine of its last 10 since a soul-searching, players-only meeting March 9. That took place after the Rainbows were swept by then-No. 1 Pepperdine on consecutive nights.
"After Pepperdine, we made changes in the way we practiced, how we prepared ourselves," said Breuer, a first-year player from Germany. "We made changes on the court and we're a whole different team out there.
"The team chemistry is there and we're having fun right now. If another team wants to beat us, they're going to have to play really, really good."
No one's come close in the past four weeks as Hawaii took apart current No. 1 UCLA, defending national champion Stanford and preseason favorite Brigham Young on consecutive weekends. That kind of roll concerns the Gauchos, who had lost three straight and four of five before struggling to top Cal State Northridge Tuesday.
UCSB's reward was a trip to Hawaii, although the MPSF briefly penciled the Gauchos in at UCLA. The original playoff bracket the league office released yesterday had the Rainbows facing Loyola Marymount, based on a playoff criteria that had been changed last year. The corrected bracket was sent out shortly after the mistake was discovered.
"We didn't care who we played," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "Santa Barbara has some guys who can light it up, but they've been struggling recently. When we played them last, it was very early in the season, and with such a new team, we were still trying to figure out how to play on the road and play together.
"We had a knock-down, drag-out fight with them there, and in all honesty, we were lucky to get out of there with a win."
Two years ago, the Gauchos upset the host No. 1 Rainbows in the MPSF semifinals. Hawaii advanced to the NCAA final four as an at-large team, eventually finishing second to UCLA.
Wilton doesn't feel secure about the Rainbows' at-large chances should they fail to win the MPSF Tournament and the automatic NCAA Tournament berth that goes with it.
"Winning this tournament is the sure thing (to get to the NCAA)," Wilton said. "There's a lot of factors that come into play in the at-large selection. There's going to be some hammering in that selection committee meeting.
"My feeling is that, at the bare minimum, we have to get to the conference final. But we need to take care of business first this weekend."
The NCAA final four will be at the Stan Sheriff Center April 30-May 2. The Rainbows have never won a national title, and to be back home to try "would be more than sweet," Breuer said.
"That is the dream of everyone on this team," he added. "The important thing is you don't have to be good at the beginning of the season, you have to be good at the end.
"We will need a new level of team play starting this weekend. I refuse to look ahead to the next game."
MPSF men's volleyball
Saturday: No. 13 UC Santa Barbara (10-12) at No. 4 Hawaii (22-5), 7 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center
http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu
