The men’s volleyball team ran into some tropical trouble Tuesday night against the University of Hawaii, dropping a heated match against the island dwellers in straight sets. Hawaii, playing without All-American starter Costas Theocharidis, still looked dominant on the hardwood, taking the three sets by scores of 30-14, 30-17 and 30-24.
Guardian
The night’s action went down at UCSD’s RIMAC Arena, and was witnessed by a crowd of 245 hardy fans.
The Warriors were helped by the powerful play of Torry Tukuafu and Brenton Davis, who had ten kills apiece on the night. Dejan Miladinovic, a 6-7 middle blocker from Kraljevo, Serbia, also had 10 kills to go with an incredible .667 hitting percentage and a game-high nine blocks for the Warriors. Also stepping in to contribute in a big way for U of H was Tony Ching. Playing in the place of Theocharidis, who was battling the flu, Ching came out strong and delivered a game- and career-high 13 kills in the victory, including six in game one. Teammate and outside hitter Eyal Zimet had five aces in that first set and ended up with a career-high seven uncontested serves. Kimo Tuyay recorded 21 assists for the night while fellow setter had 18.
The third game was the closest for the Tritons, as they battled back hard to knot the score at 22. However, the Warriors responded with an 8-2 run to pick up the road victory and boost their record to 5-1 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play, and 9-2 overall. UCSD was simply overmatched as the sixth-ranked Warriors had an astounding .471 hitting percentage with just nine hitting errors.
Guardian
UCSD saw another stellar performance from last season’s team MVP, senior Donald Chen. He was a leader on the floor for the blue and gold, knocking down a team-high 11 kills and notching three digs. Griffin Cogorno was also a force for the Tritons, swinging for 8 kills and picking up three digs. Jordan Hove was once again the setup man for UCSD, picking up 29 assists on the night to complement his .333 hitting percentage.
This season thus far has been a learning experience for the UCSD men’s volleyball team.
Competition in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, in which they participate, is particularly fierce, and the Tritons have been coming up against the best teams in the nation, as their 0-7 league (1-8 overall) record reflects.
The team has competed commendably to this point in the season and looks to make even more progress at this highest level of competitive play in the coming weeks.
Look out for the Tritons this weekend, when they will play host to Stanford Saturday at 1 p.m., and University of the Pacific Sunday at 3 p.m.
