The Beach buries
Warriors

A loss to Long Beach State hurts
Hawaii's hopes of hosting an MPSF
playoff match

Sand is a given when going to the beach. Only for the Hawaii Warriors volleyball team, it was more like quicksand on its trip to The Beach last night.

The No. 6 Warriors saw their chance at hosting a first-round playoff match continue to sink after being swept by No. 4 Long Beach State 30-23, 30-19, 30-28 at The Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif. The 49ers needed only 80 minutes to hand struggling Hawaii its second straight loss, and fourth in seven matches.

Robert Tarr put down 19 kills and Yassir Sliti 16 kills and five aces for Long Beach State. The win pulled the 49ers into a tie with Hawaii and UC Santa Barbara for third place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings at 12-7.

A victory in today's rematch (4:30 p.m. Hawaii time) would give the 49ers the tiebreaker over the Warriors should the teams finish the regular season tied. Hawaii has the tiebreaker over UCSB, which was upset by visiting UC Irvine last night in four.

The Nos. 2-4 teams will host a first-round playoff April 23.

"There's no doubt that we're playing our best volleyball of the season," 49ers coach Alan Knipe said after his team won its ninth out of the last 10. "Each match is a dress rehearsal for the playoffs, so we have to be in playoff mode right now."

Of more concern to the Warriors than being on the road in two weeks is their continuing lack of focus and inconsistent passing. Hawaii's poor passing severely limited options on offense last night; UH coach Mike Wilton was forced to pull his second-best hitter (Matt Bender) after Game 2 in order to stabilize his passing.

It worked for a while in Game 3 as the Warriors jumped out to a 7-1 lead behind the serving of sophomore Lauri Hakala. But as happened last Saturday in Game 5 against UCSB, Hawaii could not hold on.

The Warriors were four points away from forcing Game 4 at 26-22 only to see the 49ers score five straight points to take their first lead of Game 3 at 27-26. Hakala tied it at 27-27, but a kill by Tarr and Tyler Hildebrand's stuff of Hakala gave The Beach match point at 29-27. Pedro Azenha's 13th and final kill held off the 49ers for one play, with Tarr putting down the match-ender.

Azenha was the only Warrior in double-figure kills. Junior middle Dio Dante finished with nine kills in 11 swings with no errors, but had only three kills and four attempts after Game 1. Freshman middle Kyle Klinger had six kills and no errors on 10 attempts.

"Both middles did well, but we didn't get them the ball enough," Wilton said. "That is a function of passing. And our passing at times was horrible.

"In Games 1 and 2 we didn't serve and we didn't pass. They did. We got off to a nice start in Game 3. Then they started locking in on Pedro and we couldn't do much."

Hawaii never got any momentum in Games 1 and 2, hurt by a combined 10 service errors. The Warriors had six errors in Game 1, a game they lost by seven.

It got ugly in Game 2, with Sliti serving for two consecutive aces as the 49ers pulled away from 14-11 to 22-12. Hawaii finished with 19 points, tying its season low.

Wilton likely will start Brian Beckwith at setter today. The sophomore, slowed by a sprained right knee, replaced senior Daniel Rasay late in Game 1 yesterday.

"Brian's good to go, although I think he tightened up at the end," Wilton said. "We need to play some ball tomorrow. This is a real important match and our guys need to start trusting each other again."

Long Beach St. def. Hawaii

30-23, 30-19, 30-28

Warriors (16-8, 12-7 mpsf)
	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Klinger	3	6	0	10	.600	0	2	1
Carere	2	3	1	11	.182	1	1	2
Azenha	3	13	7	35	.171	0	1	1
Bender	2	5	1	10	.400	1	2	1
Rasay	2	0	0	1	.000	0	0	1
Dante	3	9	0	11	.818	0	4	0
Delgado	2	4	3	9	.111	0	2	1
Hakala	1	2	2	6	.000	0	1	1
Beckwith	3	0	0	2	.000	0	1	1
Reft	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	7
La Barre	1	1	1	3	.000	0	0	1
Totals	3	43	15	98	.286	2	14	17
49ers (18-8, 12-7 mpsf)
	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Lotman	3	3	2	8	.125	0	2	8
Hildebrand	3	0	0	1	.000	1	2	6
Liles	3	6	2	11	.364	0	1	3
Sliti	3	16	6	28	.357	0	1	2
Budinger	3	8	1	12	.583	0	2	2
Tarr	3	19	4	29	.517	0	0	5
Caldwell	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Munoz	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	6
Totals	3	52	15	89	.416	1	8	32

Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- Hawaii (1): Hakala. LBSU (7): Sliti 5, Tarr 2. Assists -- Hawaii (41): Beckwith 26, Rasay 11, Reft 3, Azenha. LBSU (51): Hildebrand 47, Budinger 2, Liles, Munoz.
T -- 1:20. Officials -- Kim Pickering, Verna Klubnikan. A -- 1,008.

MPSF standings

	Conference			Overall
	W	L	Pct.	W	L
Pepperdine	18	2	.900	18	2
UCLA	16	3	.842	23	3
Long Beach State	12	7	.632	18	8
Hawaii	12	7	.632	16	8
UCSB	12	7	.632	14	11
BYU	11	7	.611	16	9
Stanford	9	10	.474	10	12
CS Northridge	8	11	.421	15	12
Pacific	6	13	.318	12	15
UC Irvine	6	13	.318	8	18
USC	3	17	.150	6	21
UC San Diego	1	17	.056	2	20

Wednesday
UCLA def. Cal State Northridge, 30-23, 33-31, 27-30, 30-27
Yesterday
Long Beach State def. Hawaii, 30-23, 30-19, 30-28
UC Irvine def. UC Santa Barbara, 24-30, 30-28, 30-28, 30-20
Today
Hawaii at Long Beach State, 4:30 p.m. HST
Stanford at Pacific
UC San Diego at BYU
Tomorrow
CS Northridge at UC Irvine
UC San Diego at BYU
UC Santa Barbara at UCLA