Box Score

HONOLULU – The hot hitting of junior outside hitters Costas Theocharidis and Eyal Zimet sparked the “Men of War” (17-6, 14-4 MPSF) to their second straight-set sweep of No. 13 UC Irvine (11-14, 5-13 MPSF), 35-33, 30-20, 30-25 tonight before a crowd of 4,770 at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Theocharidis led the Warriors in kills for the 20th time this season, putting down 17 kills with just three attack errors for a .350 hitting percentage. Theocharidis opened the night with seven kills on 15 attempts in game one to propel the Warriors to the hard fought 35-33 win.

Zimet, a third-team All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation selection last season, had 13 kills of his own, hitting .320 in 25 swings on the night. Zimet, a native of Kibbutz Ein Hamifratz, Israel, recorded five kills in the first set, six in game two and another pair in the third and final set to register his third-highest kill total of the year against the Anteaters.

Senior middle Dejan Miladinovic enjoyed another fine defensive outing, recording a match-high seven total blocks. Miladinovic had nine blocks last night, pushing his series total to 16 blocks in six games against UC Irvine. The three-time all-league pick averaged 2.67 blocks per game over Hawai'i's two wins over the Anteaters to up his NCAA-leading season average to 1.84 blocks per game.

Hawai'i freshman Delano Thomas got the starting nod at the other middle blocker spot and responded with six kills in eight swings for a .750 hitting percentage, while junior Tony Ching added eight kills in 14 attempts to hit .357.

UC Irvine's Erick Helenihi recorded a match-high 26 kills in 49 attempts to rally the Anteaters a night after being limited to five kills the previous night.

The Warriors continue their homestand next weekend (Apr. 5 & 6) with a pair of MPSF matches against UCLA. Both matches are set to start at 7:00 p.m. in the Stan Sheriff Center.