Hawaii Breaks Hex, Service of Pepperdine

Hawaii had lost three times this season to Pepperdine in men’s volleyball, but the Warriors stepped forward when it counted most, defeating the Waves in four games Saturday at State College, Pa., to win the NCAA championship.

The 29-31, 31-29, 30-21, 30-24 victory gave Hawaii its first NCAA title in any men’s sport. Hawaii lost to UCLA in the 1996 volleyball final, its only other appearance in the men’s title match. The Hawaii women’s volleyball team has won four national titles.

Pepperdine’s usually dominant service game fell through, with 19 service errors paving the way for a Hawaii victory.

“I tell these guys, there are no little things,” Pepperdine Coach Marv Dunphy said. “We made some service errors, but that’s the way it goes. Hawaii was the better team tonight.”

Costas Theocharidis, a 6-foot-3 junior outside hitter from Greece, had 19 kills to lead Hawaii (24-8), which lost to Pepperdine twice in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation regular-season matches and again in the MPSF tournament final last weekend.

Tony Ching, a junior outside hitter, had a season-high 17 kills for the Warriors and Eyal Zimet, a junior hitter from Israel, finished with 13 kills and 13 digs.

Theocharidis, the 2001 national player of the year, was chosen the tournament’s outstanding player, but he credited his teammates for coming through in the final.

“It’s always nice to have other people step up and [Ching] played like an All-American tonight,” Theocharidis said. “It’s great to have the pressure taken off. Tonight was a team effort--it was unbelievable.”

Hawaii lost the first game, came back to win a close Game 2, then dominated from there.

“From Game 2 on, we played our best match of the year, and it couldn’t have come at a better time,” Hawaii Coach Mike Wilton said. “Costas was money tonight.”

Pepperdine (29-5) was seeking its fifth national championship, but instead was runner-up for the fifth time. Freshman Sean Rooney had 18 kills, including seven in the first game, for the Waves and Lance Walker, a senior, added 17.

Pepperdine trailed, 20-16, in the final game, but pulled to within 23-22 when a block attempt by Ching sailed out of bounds.

Hawaii then scored the next three points to take a 26-22 lead and finished off the Waves on a Theocharidis kill.