Warriors beat Beach

Good when they had to be.

Very good when they needed to be.

And at the end, they simply persevered.

Led by Jose Delgado's career-high 26 kills and another huge blocking night, No. 6 Hawaii stunned No. 4 Long Beach State for a second straight day. A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 2,885 saw the Warriors sweep their first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation series of the season, subduing the 49ers 30-25, 27-30, 30-23, 34-32 in 2 hours and 33 minutes

Lauri Hakala added 18 kills and Matt Carere 16 for Hawaii, which improved to 7-4 overall and 5-3 in the MPSF. Long Beach (11-4, 6-3) received 22 kills from both Duncan Budinger -- moving from middle to opposite for the first time in his career -- and Robert Tarr.

The Warriors held off three game points by the 49ers, the last at 32-31, tying it for the last time on a kill by Carere. Hawaii earned its second match point at 33-32 when Kevin Cape hit an overpass long.

Carere ended it on his 37th swing.

"We didn't want it to go five," Carere said. "We toughed it out and played hard all night. It was a battle. They're an exceptional team. I'm just glad we came out on top. We never gave up on each other.

"What did Jose have? Holy Christmas! He played well. What can I say?"

Hawaii again outblocked the top blocking team in the MPSF, 15-12. Dio Dante led the Warriors with seven block assists, while Carere was in on six blocks.

"We just played together at the end," said Delgado, who was serenaded by fans after the match. "They (the 49ers) played awesome. I give them a lot of credit.

"Everyone stepped up for us at the end of the match, stayed in the moment. We know that if we play our best, we can win. We need to keep working hard every day."

The Warriors have the weekend off before preparing for a four-matches-in-five-days road trip that opens Friday at Cal State Northridge.*

"We made the conscious effort tonight when another team steps their game up, we have to one-up them," UH setter Brian Beckwith said. "It's a matter of pride. We want this to be our home court. That was the message. We're not ready to die.

"Tonight, we showed our tenacity and our heart. Everyone wanted the ball every play tonight and that's the difference in attitude we're going for. It was a team effort."

Long Beach State coach Alan Knipe was encouraged by his team's ability to come back and not fold after Thursday's disappointing loss.

"We swung for chances at Game 5," Knipe said. "It's a lot better feeling than last night, when were out of here in 90 minutes.

"I thought we played a lot better tonight. Hawaii right now, they way they're playing, they didn't make many errors. We got our blocks way up and we were in the match. And we played more of a complete match. We take away a lot from this trip. I'm proud of our guys."

Hawaii hit .467 to Long Beach's .445. The 49ers won the dig battle, 48-46, with Tarr finishing with 13 and Tyler Caldwell 12.

Hawaii took the lead in Game 1 at 15-14 on Carere's solo block of Budinger. Although the 49ers tied it on the next play coming out of the timeout -- on a kill by Tarr -- they were never able to pull ahead.

The Warriors were nearly perfect with their hitting the rest of the way, with eight kills in their next 10 swings and no errors in taking a 28-23 lead. Hakala committed his first error in two nights, hitting long on a cross-court bump set by Alfred Reft, to cut the margin to 28-24.

Kills by Hakala and Delgado sandwiched a kill by Budinger to give Hawaii the win.

It didn't take long for the 49ers to surpass their block total (2) from Thursday. Teddy Liles and Paul Lotman stuffed Hakala for The Beach's third block to tie it at 5-5.

There would be eight more ties, the last at 18-18, before the 49ers pulled away for good at 20-18 on a serving error by Mauli'a La Barre and Gavin Christensen's ace. Hawaii closed to 28-27 on La Barre's ace, but kills by Lotman and Tarr evened the match.

The Warriors regained the momentum early in Game 3, leading by as many as five as the 49ers struggled to get out of a negative hitting percentage. Tarr's kill brought his team to within 17-14 and to .000 hitting. Helped by five blocks, Hawaii never let Long Beach get closer than 18-16, using a 5-0 run to seal it at 26-18.

The Warriors appeared to be in control of Game 4, with Hakala's kill ending a rally that had even the 49er coaches applauding, putting UH ahead 22-18. But The Beach stormed back behind Budinger and Tarr, taking their first lead at 28-27.

A kill by Hakala tied it at 28, and it would be tied four more times before Cape's hitting error and Carere's kill gave Hawaii its first sweep of matches against the 49ers since 2003.

Note: The 68 points scored by Long Beach State in Thursday's loss was the second-fewest for the 49ers in the rally-scoring era, tying the total scored against Pepperdine last season. The fewest points scored by The Beach is 65, which came against Hawaii in 2002 in a 30-18, 30-25, 30-22 defeat.