ByKathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
The Rainbows' Rick Tune gets ready to slam one of his
nine kills in last night's victory over UC-Santa Barbara.

Last week's two bad losses on the road had haunted the Rainbows' practices the past two days. So had last April's five-game loss to UC Santa Barbara that nearly kept Hawaii out of the final four.

Thanks to the voodoo serves of Sivan Leoni and the magic cast that allowed Rick Tune to play with a broken thumb, Hawaii chased the demons out of the Special Events Arena. The Rainbows also sent the eighth-ranked Gauchos back to their hotel with a 15-13, 15-7, 15-13 nonconference defeat.

"Sivan's jump serve killed us," said UCSB coach Kenny Preston after Leoni's three aces in Game 1 turned the momentum in Hawaii's favor. "I knew what was coming. The problem is I couldn't convey it well enough to my team.

"Our problems started with serve-receive against Leoni and that was the whole game."

Well, not completely. Jason Ring's 19 kills helped. As did 14 kills by Naveh Milo. And Tune, who broke his thumb in last Thursday's loss at Pepperdine, played through the pain for eight resounding blocks.

But it was Leoni who was clearly the man of the hour and 50 minutes. The junior blocker nearly doubled his season ace total with four tricky floaters, three in Game 1 that brought the Rainbows back from a 13-12 deficit to pull it out, 15-13.

In all, Hawaii scored 16 points while Leoni was serving, eight in the critical first game. The Rainbows (5-3) are now 5-0 when winning Game 1.

"Sivan played great, he's my player of the game," said Tune. "That's the great thing about this team. Anybody can step it up on any given night.

"That wasn't the real Santa Barbara we saw tonight. For us to beat them Friday, we'll need to cut down on our mistakes and play a better match."

Tomorrow's 7 p.m. rematch will count in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings. Hawaii is currently 3-2 in the Pacific Division while UCSB, 3-3 overall, is 3-1 in the Mountain Division.

Neither team looked particularly sharp last night. The Rainbows limped back home after playing three matches in five days on the road; the Gauchos, coming off a huge upset at UCLA last Friday, are in the middle of a five-game road swing.

Besides Tune, Hawaii senior captain Aaron Wilton was slowed by a strained leg. Still, he was in on seven blocks.

UCSB's Donny Harris, who had 30 kills against UCLA, put down 14 kills but hit .194 last night before leaving the match in the middle of Game 3. Harris, who is second in the country in kill average, was a major concern for the Rainbows; last April, he had 32 kills in the MPSF tournament semifinal win over Hawaii.

"Donny's got bronchitis, has been coughing up blood," said Preston. "But he was sick against UCLA, too, and played OK that night. Our problem was we just didn't have very good hitting performances from our starters."

Credit Leoni for the jump-floaters that baffled the Gauchos' passers. He punctuated his aces - as well as his 14 kills - with his trademark grunts.

"I have been working very hard on my serves," said Leoni, who had five aces coming into the match.

"And I've been working on my back-row (attacks from the 3-meter line).

"They looked like we did against BYU. The loss to BYU was the last straw for us. We got killed pretty much. Everybody realized we've got to get our stuff together and play real volleyball."

Kevin Collins added 13 kills for the Gauchos and Robert Treahy added 12. Former Rainbow player Alika Williams, who transfered to UCSB last year, added seven kills and four blocks in coming off the bench.

Gauchos (3-3 overall)

		g	k	e	at	pct.	bs	ba	d
Williams	3	7	13	13	.385	1	3	4
Wagner		3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Rauth		2	3	8	8	.250	0	0	3
Renfree		3	1	2	2	.500	1	5	7
Treahy		3	12	23	23	.391	0	7	9
Darner		1	1	3	3	.333	0	1	1
Crone		3	4	9	9	.000	0	3	3
Harris		3	14	36	36	.194	1	3	5
McCoy		2	3	10	10	.000	0	0	0
Collins		3	13	28	28	.143	0	5	4
Totals		3	58	132	132	.220	3	27	36

		g	k	e	at	pct.	bs	ba	d
Lee		2	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Wilton		3	5	5	16	.000	0	7	5
Milo		3	14	5	24	.375	0	0	8
Vaughan		3	4	2	9	.222	0	3	6
Kuo		3	1	1	3	.000	0	1	4
Leoni		3	14	3	23	.478	0	5	5
Ring		3	19	5	34	.412	0	1	4
Tune		3	9	4	19	.263	1	7	2
Totals		3	54	25	128	.320	1	24	34

Aces-UCSB (4): Crone 2, Treahy 1, Harris 1. UH (7): Leoni 4, Wilton 2, Milo 1. Assists-UCSB (55): Renfree 53, Collins 2. UH (62): Vaughan 55, Wilton 3, Ring 2, Kuo 1, Leoni 1.

A-6,910. T-1:50. Officials: Lee, Ho.