USC
Hawaii*
Trojans Fall To Hawai'i In Three Sets
April 13, 2003 | Men's Volleyball
April 13, 2003
HONOLULU - The University of Hawai`i mens volleyball team finished their regular season by sweeping the Trojans of USC, 32-30, 30-23, 30-22, at the Stan Sheriff Center on "Senior Night" for Tony Ching, Costas Theocharidis, Brian Nordberg, and Eyal Zimet to extend their winning streak to 13 matches.
The seniors shone bright on their night in the victory. For the second night in a row Zimet had a huge match with 14 kills while hitting at a .600 clip. Theocharidis and Nordberg each had 12 kills in their final regular-season showing in Honolulu. Outside hitter Ching added nine kills.
Despite trailing early in game one the Warriors were able to pull-out the close victory. Zimet had seven crucial kills and hit .750 to lead the Warriors. The Men of War looked to have had the game won when they led 29-25, but the Trojans went on a four point run to tie the game at 29. Two costly service errors by USC gave the Warriors a 32-30 overtime win. UH posted 21 kills and hit .385 in the first game.
Game two was much more one-sided, as UH hit .400 and blasted 17 kills in the game, compared to USC's .130 team attack percentage. Sparked by kills from Theocharidis, UH sprinted out to 4-0 lead and never looked back. The closest USC got was within three points at the first media timeout, when they trailed 13-10. But back to back blocks late in the game by Ching and Nordberg put the game out of reach, 25-19. Junior Joshua Stanhiser provided big defense at the net and won the match for the Warriors with a timely block to make it 30-23.
Nordberg led the team with five kills in a dominant third game for UH. The Warriors went to work quickly and established an eight point lead with the help of a four point run to make the game 17-9. The game reached 26-17 and the four seniors were taken out of the game one by one to allow the crowd one more chance to roar on senior night. Junior outside hitter Arri Jeschke pounded the final kill in the final game to give the Warriors an impressive 30-22 victory.
