Hawaii, Long Beach
State go at it again

The Warriors face the 49ers
in Saturday's MPSF quarterfinal
match at the Stan Sheriff Center

After a day at the beach, the Hawaii Warriors volleyball team prepared for a day against The Beach.

On Monday, the Warriors celebrated staying at home for the first round of the playoffs with a day of bodysurfing at Sandy Beach. Yesterday, the team got back down to business preparing for Saturday's elimination match against Long Beach State.

Many think that the battle between the fourth-ranked 49ers and fifth-ranked Warriors is the toughest of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Tournament quarterfinals. Not much separated the two during the regular season, with The Beach sweeping Hawaii in three on April 7 and the Warriors returning the favor in three the next night.

Had the two teams tied in the regular-season standings, the 49ers would have been given the hosting edge, thanks to an eight-point differential. Long Beach scored 169 points to Hawaii's 161 in the two meetings.

Of the other two quarterfinals, the next toughest might be UC Santa Barbara at Brigham Young. The teams split during the regular season, but those matches were at Santa Barbara; the Cougars are 9-3 at Smith Fieldhouse, where the thinner air often wreaks havoc with opponents' serving.

Saturday's other quarterfinal has second-seeded UCLA hosting the winner of tonight's play-in match between Stanford and Cal State Northridge. The host Matadors have won eight of their last 11.

"They're all going to be tough matches," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "Unless there are some upsets, the winner of our match will play Pepperdine."

The Waves are in a good news-bad news situation where they have a bye this week. It means they will have had 12 days off between their April 15 victory at Cal State Northridge and next week's semifinal on April 28.

"If we had won the league outright, I don't know if I'd want to be in that situation," Wilton said. "I'm wondering if we want to rethink the playoff system. That's a long time to be sitting around, thinking about things, while the team you face has been playing."

The real conjecture appears to be over who will earn the NCAA at-large berth. Historically, it has been awarded to the MPSF Tournament runner-up, but ...

In 1996, Hawaii had been top-ranked for most of the season only to lose to UCSB in the MPSF semifinal. The Gauchos then went on to lose the automatic berth to UCLA in the championship match.

Hawaii was awarded the at-large berth over UCSB.

UCLA is again hosting the national championship. The Bruins and Pepperdine have traded off being No. 1 most of the season.

"The bottom line is to win the tournament and not have to wait for a committee to decide," Wilton said.

KFVE wins telecast bid: KFVE emerged as a victor in the bidding for this Saturday's telecast of the quarterfinal match between Hawaii and Long Beach State.

Oceanic Time Warner also submitted a bid.

The two entities are the top contenders for the new contract to televise UH sports. KHNL/KFVE has been the TV home for UH sports since 1984.

Athletic department officials expect to have a decision this week. KHNL/KFVE's contract expires June 30.