Box Score

LONG BEACH, Calif. - The 13th-ranked University of Hawai`i men's volleyball team took one giant leap towards the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs with a 25-30, 30-24, 30-24, 30-28 win over No. 9 Long Beach State tonight at the Pyramid.

The Warriors won their eighth-straight and fourth-straight road match improving to 11-13 overall and 9-11 in the MPSF while the 49ers dropped their sixth-straight falling to 11-15 and 6-14.

Opposite Lauri Hakala led all attackers with 20 kills while Ernie Vidinha contributed 11 off the bench. Setter Brian Beckwith posted 50 assists and Eric Kalima picked up 10 digs. The UH block was in full force again tonight with 24.5 team blocks led by Dio Dante's 11 while Beckwith and Matt Rawson stuffed 10 apiece. UH hit .265 as a team and held the LBSU attack to a mere .204 hitting percentage.

The Beach was led by Dean Bittner's 16 kills followed by Paul Lotman's 14 and Tommy Perstolesi's 11. Setter Connor Eaton handed out 59 assists while Teddy Liles snuffed six blocks.

UH took an early 7-3 lead in the first set before the Beach came back to tie it at 11. A Rawson error gave the 49ers a 14-13 lead which they never relinquished winning 30-25.

In the second set, there were 12 ties and seven lead changes. With UH leading 21-20, a LBSU attack error gave the Warriors momentum as they won nine of the 13 points to tie the match at a set apiece, 30-24.

Hawai`i led from the outset in third set jumping out to a 3-0 advantage and extending the margin to as many as seven (19-12) before taking the set, 30-24.

In the fourth set, the Warriors had their best hitting set of the night sporting a .417 percentage to the 49ers .256. With UH leading 7-6, the Warriors would take four of the next five points and hold off a late charge to clinch the match, 30-28.

The Warriors return to Honolulu for their final two regular season matches April 13-14 against MPSF rival Stanford. With Pacific's loss to Pepperdine tonight, the Warriors (9-11) are alone in seventh place in the league standings a half game in front of USC (8-11) and one game ahead of Pacific (8-12). The top eight spots earn a berth to the league playoffs.

-UH-