
Bruins Edged by Warriors in Men's Volleyball
March 29, 2001 | Men's Volleyball
March 29, 2001
The UCLA men's volleyball team suffered its sixth loss of the season, dropping a five-game match to No.2 Hawai'i Thursday night.
Hawai'i (16-3, 11-2) won 25-30, 30-27, 23-30, 30-23, 15-13 in two hours and nine minutes before 823 fans in Pauley Pavilion.
The victory extended Hawai'i's current winning streak to seven matches and snapped a 13-match losing streak to UCLA on the mainland. The Warriors' last victory over the Bruins in Los Angeles came on Feb. 13, 1983 under the guidance of coach Dave Shoji.
The turning point in the match came in Game 2 with the Warriors holding a 25-22 lead. After a UCLA timeout, the Bruins roared back to tie the score on a kill by senior Mark Williams, a block by sophomore Scott Morrow and an ace by Williams. At 25-25, Williams committed a service error to give UH the lead. From there the Bruins couldn't rebound and Hawaii took the game, 30-27.
The Bruins (17-6, 9-4) regrouped to take Game 3 after junior Matt Komer slammed eight of his team-leading 22 kills and served a pair of aces. The Bruins hit .389 and also benefited from five kills by sophomore Cameron Mount.
Hawai'i reversed the score in Game 4 as All-American Costas Theocharidis spiked eight of his match-high 31 kills to lead his team to a hitting percentage of .433, its best of the match. The Warriors ended the game with an ace by sophomore Eyal Zimet.
In Game 5, Hawai'i staged its match-winning comeback. Down 10-12, the Warriors came out of a timeout and outscored the Bruins 5-1 to record their 16th victory of the season.
Although the Bruins out-hit their opponent, .341-.324, the Warriors won the blocking war, 11-9 and out-dug UCLA, 50-43. UCLA also committed 20 service errors to UH's 12.
Mount recorded 16 kills (.175), followed by Williams and senior Adam Naeve with 14 apiece.
Senior Torry Tukuafu spiked 18 kills (.406) for the Warriors, followed by 10 from Brenton Davis.
The teams will meet again Friday night at 7 p.m. in Pauley Pavilion.