Outrigger Invitational Tournament -- Night 3
Woozie
Playing three nights in a row against powerful teams may be too much to
ask of teams. Tonight's matches were pretty ugly with both Penn State and
Hawai`i showing obvious signs of fatigue. Of course, that's no excuse.
The scores were:
Penn State over Laval: 10-15, 15-6, 15-9
UCLA over Hawai`i: 15-11, 13-15, 16-14, 15-5
In the first match, Penn State came out flat with Ivan Contreras going
without a kill for about 10 minutes. As a result, Laval ran off to a
stunning 11-2 lead before the Nittany Lions started a belated comeback.
Laval surprisingly outblocked Penn State by a hefty margin in game 1.
However, once Contreras got started there was almost no stopping him. He
hit an impressive 10 kills in game 1 to almost bring the Nittany Lions
back. Instead, Penn State got as close as 10-14 before Laval took game 1
15-10. In game 2, with their pride wounded, Penn State stormed back and
zoomed to a 6-1 lead before Laval started scoring some points. Laval
closed to 6-4 before Penn State ran off 6 unanswered points to 12-4. Laval
scored two more points to 12-6 before falling in game 2 by the score of
15-6. In order for Penn State to catch a late flight, the match was
limited to 2 out of 3 games with game 3 played with (gag) rally scoring.
The smaller Laval team kept up with Penn State until the score was even at
4-4 before Penn State made a run for it with the gap exploding to 9-4.
Laval closed the gap slightly to 11-7 before Penn State finished off the
game with a score of 15-9. Penn State was led by Kepner (16 kills/2
blocks), Contreras (12 kills/4 blocks) and Mazzullo (12 kills/2 blocks).
Laval was led by Lagace (17 kills/2 blocks) andddd Dominic Lavoie (11
kills/2 blocks/3 aces).
Once again, Hawai`i fans fell in love with the underdog team from Laval.
During this tournament, Laval was the only team to play with any semblance
of consistency and got better as the tournament wore on. In the first
match, Laval was boosted by their near victory over UCLA the previous and
the wild cheering of an appreciative crowd. Hawai`i fans loved Laval and
Laval loved them back. To show their appreciation, the players from Laval
ran through the crowd and showered them with posters and other souveneir
trinkets. The fans went wild. If only all guests were this appreciative.
Now, for the dreaded Bruins. UCLA brings out the worst in Hawai`i fans.
Despite often dazzling play, Paul Nihipali got booed by Hawai`i fans as a
result of a trash-talking incident in the arena almost two years ago. Do
Hawai`i fans hold a grudge? Against some people, yes. On the other hand,
no team earns as many boos as UCLA does with its whining and arrogance.
Prior to the match, UCLA came out first and hogged the entire court instead
of leaving one side for the Bows. This characteristic bit of rudeness
interfered with the Rainbows' pre-game ritual of huddling and diving out to
the floor in a flower-like formation. The fans were not pleased.
As for the game, what can I say that Scooby didn't. The Bows were flat --
they couldn't serve or block to save their lives. Many of their hits went
straight into the Bruin block instead of over or around. Game 1 started
off horribly for the Bows. The Bruins took off to a 9-2 lead before the
Bows woke up and started to battle back. The Rainbows managed to tie the
score at 9-9, but led the game slip away. The Bows did manage to hold the
Bruins for 4 game points before losing 15-11. Game 2 started off much
better with the Bows getting out to a lead of 9-3. Then the Bows pissed
away the lead to allow the Bruins to tie the score at 9-9. The Bruins then
took the lead to 12-10. The Bows tied at 12-12. The Bruins scored 1 more
point before the Rainbows finally took game 2 15-13 on an ace served by
Jason Ring. Game 3 was another heartbreaker like game 1. The Bows stayed
close throughout game 3 until the score hit 14-14. The Bruins outlasted
the Bows to win game 3 after serving a whopping 7 game points. Game 4 was
a disaster. The Bows were tired and couldn't do anything right. Their
legs were like lead and some of Vaughan's sets were too low. The Bruins
smoked the Bows by taking a shocking 12-3 lead. The Bows closed to 12-5,
but that was it. The Bruins took game 4 on their 3rd game point to win
15-5.
Bright spots for the Bows in an otherwise disappointing match: gutsy play
from team captain Aaron Wilton who was suffering from symptoms of stomach
flu prior to the match (31 kills and 3 blocks). Good performances from
Jason Ring (around 24 kills <I didn't catch the number before he went out
of the match>, 2 blocks and 3 aces) and Rick Tune (17 kills and 5 blocks).
Tune also had a stellar performance in the previous night's match against
Penn State (19 kills with a hitting percentage of .692).
Hawai`i was named the tournament champion due to its win over runner-up
Penn State who beat UCLA the first night in 4 games. UCLA was apparently
penalized for its lazy performance against Laval. In many ways, UCLA got
the last laugh since their players (namely Paul Nihipali) were more rested
and it showed. Height also was a factor in the Bruins' superior block.
The more exhausted Bows were unable to jump high enough to hit over the
block when they needed to. The Rainbows' one tall player, Clayton Stanley,
does not have the experience to take on the Bruins yet. Our early great
expectations were a bit much to ask of a 19-year-old player with no high
school experience. He is a quick learner and will develop into a great
player. At the moment, he's a work in progress similar to many of the
great players coached by Wahine coach Dave Shoji.
The all-tournament team:
From Penn State: Ivan Contreras and Jason Kepner
From Hawai`i: Aaron Wilton, Curt Vaughan and Jason Ring
From Laval: Francis Morin
Tournament MVP: Paul Nihipali of UCLA
Final comments. UCLA benefitted from a deep bench which allowed it to
rest some of its key players such as Adam Naeve. UCLA also had a more
diverse offense tonight with Nihipali (33 kills/8 blocks) getting much
needed assistance from Stillwell (24 kills/ 9 blocks), Naeve (15 kills) and
Robins (10 kills/1 block). Hawai`i needed more tricks to get around a
bigger block and needed to rest its key players. For Penn State, the
future looks pretty bright with Contreras and Kepner leading the way. PSU
showed strength and speed. It looks like PSU is on the way to Columbus,
Ohio. As for Laval, they played with great heart against bigger and
stronger teams. If they make the most of this experience they just might
surprise the other Canadian teams. Perhaps tonight's performances would
have been better if there had been a day of rest, but scheduling is a
nightmare so we everyone had to make adjustments. UCLA just happened to be
better at making adjustments this time.
And now the Bows go on a bruising road trip: Long Beach State (Tues.
1/28), Pepperdine (Th. 1/30) and BYU (Sat. 2/1). Who made up this death
march of a schedule? The Bows then come home to face UCSB on Feb 5 & 7
before getting a two week rest. Well, if this doesn't prepare them for
rest of the season, I don't know what will.
Other scores of interest (courtesy of Ohio State's website): on Friday
(1/24) it was Ohio State over USC in 5: 16-14, 6-15,15-13, 11-15, 15-11.
The next night it was Stanford over Ohio State in 4 games: 15-7, 7-15,
15-12, 15-5.
A great weekend of volleyball. And now let the regular season begin in
earnest. Watch for the AVCA rankings on Tuesday, 1/28.
--
\\/oozie
<<Go Bows!!>>
University of Hawai`i Special Events Arena
Stan Sheriff's Volleyball Field of Dreams
He Built it and They Came
Steve Spielman
We have been UH volleyball fans for almost 20 years. UH probably has
more fans in the arena in one weekend than most teams have all season.
There may be ten times that number of fans watching the live TV
broadcast. We would like to think that UH has the best fans, not just
the most fans. Until the UH/UCLA match, we thought that might be true.
The UH crowd had given Penn State an enthusiastic round of applause as
they left the arena to catch a flight after their match and had been
giving an appreciative Laval team a number of standing ovations.
However we were truly embarassed by the loud booing when UCLA was
introduced and whenever Paul Nihipali served. The crowd loves an
underdog like Laval but sees no reason too appreciate the skills of a
dominant team like UCLA. About 10% of the fans vented 8 months of
frustration on the Bruins for having beaten the 'Bows for the national
championship. (The Wahine loss to a similarly dominant Stanford team
didn't help either.)
Paul Nihipali's unstoppable spikes were probably the biggest factor in
the loss last Spring and along with his verbal jousting with Sivan Leoni
and Aaron Wilton last season, has become the focal point of the fans'
booing. It has almost become a tradition to boo him. The booing fans
probably irritated the other 8000 fans more than it bothered the Bruins
or Mr. Nihipali (He must have 250-300 kills here in the last 12
months.), but the matches would be more more enjoyable if the whole
crowd acted more sportsmanlike.
I have read reports of bad crowd behavior at other arenas. Perhaps it's
because volleyball can be a very emotional game to watch. It's a lot of
fun when the home team is winning and the crowd is roaring, but the fans
can get down when things aren't going so well. When a lot of fans start
booing the other team or the officials, we think it detracts from the
game. The only solution we can see is if the home team loses a point or
side out when the crowd becomes unsportsmanlike. I know there are
other sports that assess penalties for bad crowd behavior. The UH crowd
likes to think of themselves as a seventh player on the court. We think
if the crowd could be yellow-carded and penalized for unsportsmanlike
conduct, perhaps the crowd would only express positive emotions and only
be silent when things aren't going their way. Would it be a good idea
to institute such a rule?
Another factor which would make games more enjoyable would be if all
teams played with the classy demeanor of Penn State's players and
coaches. They finished their match against UH at what was about 4:30 am
Eastern time, yet managed to play hard and well and made no excuses
about the loss. I think I saw more instances of Penn State players
acknowledging good play from opponents in this one weekend than I have
from any MPSF team over many seasons. I think UH coach Mike Wilton
would like to have that type of behavior from his naturally emotional
players. He benched one starter after an outburst in the UCLA game. I
hope he can find that balance between showing enthusiasm and still
showing good sportsmanship.
Even though the booing was a negative in this tournament, there were
many positive events. The crowd rapport with Laval was fantastic. There
was great passing of tough serves from all teams, but Trong Nguyen was
incredible against UH. UH servers were forced into many errors trying
to get it past him. It got to be pretty frustrating for UH fans to see
all the out serves and then when a ripped serve did get in, Nguyen
passed it perfectly, usually resulting in a Nihipali kill off a perfect
Taliaferro set. UH players and fans don't like losing, but it's going
to be tough to beat a combination like that. Hopefully UCLA, Penn State
and UH can make it back to the Final Four and Outrigger Hotels will
bring them and underclassmen-loaded Laval back again next winter. If
Laval has a 6 and 17 record, maybe we're lucky there aren't any Canadian
teams in the NCAA.
Many thanks to Outrigger Hotels for another great tournament,
Jackie Loui and Steve Spielman
L. Ravi Narasimhan
In <32EBDF...@hawaii.edu> Steve Spielman <spie...@hawaii.edu> writes:
[ Excursus on fan (mis)behavior ]
I think you are being excessively hard on yourself. You've pointed
out a number of instances of positive fan behavior from the UH side,
the "adoption" of Laval for example, as well as adduced the
sportsmanlike responses from the Penn State players and staff. You
are correct, this is more than most teams get all season or over
several seasons.
But the concern over booing Nihipali and UCLA is, in my mind,
unnecessary. I've watched UCLA over several seasons and have been
uniformly negatively impressed by the attitudes of their players and
staff. I have never seen Scates bench an obnoxious athlete. I
watched more than one match last year in which one Bruin nearly got
into a fight after the last whistle blew. Not only was he not benched
during the festivities, but, an assistant coach soothed his ruffled brow by
saying that the win excused the behavior. "Hey, it's ok, you won" is
not the same as "You do that again, you're history." A couple of
years ago, another player booted his second place NCAA plaque, he came
back as a team captain.
What may be unfortunate from your perspective as a 'bows fan is the way
in which UCLA can play off of negative energy and comments. That is
something they do well, the NCAA Finals of '96 being a prime example.
I'd encourage you to keep up the pressure only figure out better where to
apply it. Remember, what you consider bad behavior is nothing
compared to what can and does go on in MPSF play. Fret not about being
the figurative seventh man on the court since the Bruins always have
at least one extra guy on the floor and in their pocket when the
matches matter.
As far as match penalties for crowd misbehavior, I think the leagues
and NCAA are talking out of their collective asses. The worst, most brutish
behavior is always on the court. When the coaches and players start
getting carded and tossed consistently and regularly, then let the
muckity-mucks dare to say anything to the fans.
--- Oski
Sixpac Shakur
--
Ravi Narasimhan
Dept. of Physics, UCLA
http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~oski