[ WARRIOR VOLLEYBALL ]
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Hawaii's Dio Dante hit the ball past Long Beach State's David Lee during last night's match.
Warriors beat Beach in 5
Long Beach State enjoyed a snorkel trip to calm Hanauma Bay on Thursday. No one told them about the dangerous conditions at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Matt Bender had a career-high 26 kills as No. 6 Hawaii rode an emotional wave past the second-ranked 49ers last night 25-30, 30-25, 29-31, 30-28, 15-13. A raucous crowd of 3,605 saw the Warriors topple The Beach for the fifth consecutive time and end the 49ers' seven-match winning streak after 2 hours and 47 minutes.
Delano Thomas added 20 kills and Josh Stanhiser 10 as Hawaii improved to 15-8 overall, 11-6 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The 49ers fell to 21-5, 14-4.
The rematch is at 7 tonight.
"At the end, our blocking was there," said Bender. "That's what won it for us. Kimo (Tuyay) and Josh were huge. They couldn't get around it."
Tuyay and Stanhiser teamed for two of Hawaii's 14 blocks at the end of Game 5, first stuffing Jeff Wootton to give the Warriors a 12-11 lead, then stopping Scott Touzinsky for match point at 14-12.
Duncan Budinger pulled The Beach to 14-13 with a kill, but the match ended with an anticlimatic service error by Wootton.
Wootton led the 49ers with 21 kills, while David Lee added 19, hitting .692. Touzinsky finished with 16.
"We knew we were going to win," said Dio Dante, who replaced an injured Mauli'a LaBarre in Game 2. "We played with fire. It was fun. The crowd was so into it."
It was a career night for the seldom-used Dante, who finished with five kills and seven block assists.
"It was a tough one to lose," Lee said. "We had plenty of chances to win it before it got to a Game 5, we should have taken them in four. We'll watch some video of them, change a few things and play Long Beach State volleyball tomorrow."
Serving kept the Warriors in Game 1. Thomas' early serving run included an ace and a kill by Ryan Woodward on an overpass for a 6-5 lead. Hawaii led only once before the 49ers began to pull away.
Pedro Azenha's brief serving appearance resulted in two aces that pulled Hawaii to 18-17. The Beach converted on several broken plays in taking a 28-22 lead and closed out the game on Wootton's fifth kill.
Hawaii evened the match with a Game 2 victory that was anything but pretty. The Warriors controlled early, leading by as much as 21-14, only to have the 49ers close to within one three times, the last at 25-24.
Kills by Stanhiser and Bender gave Hawaii some breathing room at 27-24. Wootton's 11th kill kept The Beach breathing at 27-25.
But not for long. Bender put down his ninth kill and then teamed with Dante for two consecutive blocks to tie the match.
The Warriors led late in Game 3 only to have the 49ers pull out the nail-biter. Hawaii was up at 24-19 and 26-24, but The Beach rallied to go ahead at 27-26. UH tied it three times and held off two game points, the last at 30-29.
The 49ers weathered the final rally that included what appeared to be a lift by Lee, setting up Nathan Hagstrom's eighth kill.
Hawaii refused to fold.
Down by as much as 20-17 in Game 4, the Warriors hung tough. Thomas' third ace gave Hawaii its first lead since 6-5 at 25-24.
The Warriors broke a 27-27 tie with a kill by Azenha then earned game point when Bender blocked Wootton. The 49ers held off one game point, but Azenha evened the match, putting down his sixth kill on an "X" play.
"They're a tough team," Tuyay said. "This was great. We proved we could be a top team. We'll see what happens tomorrow."
Note: In the stands last night were three members of the 2002 national championship team -- Costas Theocharidis, Dejan Miladinovic and Vernon Podlewski. Podlewski and former Warrior Clay Stanley are current members of the U.S. National Team.
MPSF standings
Conference Overall W L Pct. W L x-BYU 16 1 .941 20 3 x-Long Beach St. 14 4 .778 21 5 x-UCLA 13 4 .765 19 4 x-Pepperdine 11 6 .647 15 6 x-CSU Northridge 11 6 .647 17 7 x-Hawaii 11 6 .647 15 8 UC Santa Barbara 8 9 .471 14 10 Stanford 5 12 .294 8 14 UC Irvine 4 13 .235 10 16 USC 4 13 .235 6 18 Pacific 3 14 .188 7 17 UC San Diego 3 15 .167 6 16 x-clinched MPSF Tournament berth
Last night's results
Hawaii def. Long Beach State 3-2
BYU def. UC San Diego, 3-1
CSU Northridge def. Stanford, 3-1
UC Santa Barbara def. Pacific, 3-0
Tonight's matches
Long Beach State at Hawaii, 7 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center
BYU at UC San Diego
Pacfic at CSU Northridge
UC Irvine at USC
UCLA at Pepperdine
Stanford at UCSB
Hawaii def. Long Beach St.
25-30, 30-25, 29-31, 30-28, 15-1349ers (21-5, 14-4 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Wootton 5 21 11 47 .213 1 0 12 Coe 3 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Hildebrand 5 3 3 8 .000 1 3 4 Barbosa 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Hagstrom 5 4 3 10 .100 0 4 6 Touzinsky 5 16 5 32 .344 0 2 7 Kijewski 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1 Sliti 2 4 1 6 .500 0 0 1 Budinger 5 6 0 9 .667 0 2 2 Munoz 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 6 Lee 5 19 1 26 .692 0 5 2 Tarr 5 3 3 9 .000 0 0 3 Totals 5 76 27 147 .333 2 16 44 Warriors (15-8, 11-6 MPSF)
g k e att pct. bs ba d Tuyay 5 2 0 3 .667 0 4 7 Muise 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Jeschke 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0 Reft 5 0 0 0 .000 0 0 10 Azenha 5 7 4 14 .214 0 1 1 Bender 5 27 6 46 .457 0 5 4 Woodward 4 4 1 12 .250 1 2 8 LaBarre 1 0 0 2 .000 0 0 1 Thomas 5 20 11 55 .164 0 2 4 Dante 4 5 0 12 .417 0 7 0 Stanhiser 5 10 2 16 .500 0 6 1 Totals 5 75 24 160 319 1 27 36 Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- LBSU (6): Hagstrom 2, Tarr 2, Wootton, Touzinsky. Hawaii (10): Azenha 3, Thomas 3, Bender 2, Dante 2. Assists -- LBSU (71): Hildebrand 65, Munoz 2, Lee 2, Hagstrom, Touzinsky. Hawaii (71): Tuyay 61, Thomas 5, Azenha 2, Jeschke, Reft, Woodward.
T -- 2:47. Officials -- Wayne Lee, Dan Hironaka. A -- 3,605.
