Box Score

HONOLULU – Hawai'i junior outside hitters Eyal Zimet and Costas Theocharidis combined for 28 kills on 48 swings to lead the second-ranked Warriors to a sweep of 12th-ranked Long Beach State in the first round of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament, 30-26, 30-28, 30-28, before a vocal crowd of 6,061 tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Warrior captain Zimet, a native of Kibbutz Ein Hammifratz, Israel, led all attackers with a gaudy .733 hitting percentage, with 12 kills and just one error in 15 swings. Zimet had three kills in five swings in game one to help lift Hawai'i to the 30-26 win. Game two saw Zimet put-down four more kills. In the third and final set, the 2001 third-team All-MPSF pick was perfect with five kills in five swings, as the Warriors emerged from the tug-of-war to take the set and the game.

Theocharidis was steady again as the top option in the Warrior attack, recording a match-high 16 kills in 33 attempts for a .394 hitting percentage. The reigning American Volleyball Coaches Association national Player of the Year also came up strong in the final set, putting-down six kills with just one error in 13 attempts to help Hawai'i advance to the semifinals of the conference championships.

Senior middle Dejan Miladinovic was strong again in the middle, recording a match-high six total blocks and eight kills in the win. His freshman counterpart, Delano Thomas was also quite effective, with seven kills in nine attempts for a .556 attack percentage.

The Warriors will depart Honolulu Tuesday morning for the west coast, where they will prepare for their semifinal match against No. 7 UC Santa Barbara, who advanced by surprising third-seeded UCLA tonight in Los Angeles.

Host Pepperdine will host BYU in the other semifinal. The Waves swept Cal State Northridge in straight sets, while BYU edged Stanford in five sets to advance. Both semi's will be played on Thur., Apr. 25. The MPSF title match will be played on Sat., Apr. 27.

Rainbow Sports Radio (KCCN 1420 AM) will carry Hawai'i's matches throughout the MPSF Tournament. Scott Robbs will handle play-by-play for the contests, which will be aired on the internet through the UH Athletics website at http://uhathletics.hawaii.edu.