JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii's Dio Dante and Jose Delgado blocked a kill attempt by Loyola-Chicago's Nathan Gustus last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

UH gangs up on Loyola

The Warriors get 60 of their 69 kills from four players in a romp of visiting Loyola-Chicago

All season long, opponents have had to deal with Hawaii's three-headed monster: outside hitters Jose Delgado, Lauri Hakala and Matt Carere. The trio has put down double-figure kills most nights for the No. 3 Warriors.

Middle blocker Mauli'a La Barre put down a season-high 13 kills to help Hawaii to a 32-34, 30-21, 30-25, 30-24 nonconference win over No. 10 Loyola-Chicago. A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 2,346 saw the Warriors win their 10th straight to improve to 14-4.

The Ramblers, losing their fourth match in five outings, fell to 16-5.

The teams meet again at 7 tonight.

"Mau was so fired up tonight -- he was a spark plug in the middle," said UH libero Alfred Reft, who had 17 of the team's 62 digs. "He did a good job, hustling, getting digs. He'll have to take the (libero) jersey."

It's doubtful that it will be happening any time soon. La Barre is very content to remain a force in the front row. Last night he was one off his career high, with just one error in 16 swings, hitting .750.

"Brian (Beckwith) was setting perfect balls and it makes it easy to put balls away," La Barre said. "They're a good team, very discipline-wise on the block. They played the percentages (committing on UH's outside hitters). We were passing well and able to run our quick offense.

"My job in practice this week was to be up, be on time, be available. It's tough when we can establish the middle like that. It makes it easier for our three outsides to put the ball away one-on-one."

Delgado finished with a match-high 19 kills, with Carere adding 15 and Hakala 13. Delgado and Hakala also had double-double nights, with 11 and 10 digs, respectively.

"It was one of those nights where you have to feed the hot player," said Beckwith, adding 12 digs to his 61 assists and six block assists. "Mau was unstoppable tonight and I continued to give him the ball."

Game 1 alone was worth the price of admission ... at least at the end when the Warriors kept their serves in. Hawaii had seven service errors, preventing the Warriors from getting any offensive rhythm and helping to keep Loyola in the game.

Hawaii's last service error gave Loyola what would be the first of five game points at 29-28. The Warriors were able to hold off the Ramblers four times, but not the last, with Chris Kozlarek and James Grunst blocking Delgado to end it.

"I thought we were doing what we needed to do, turn the plays we needed," Loyola coach Shane Davis said. "We didn't do that as much in Games 2, 3 and 4. And they stepped up their serving."

The Warriors cut their serving errors down to four while also adding three aces to lead by as many as nine. The Ramblers didn't get out of negative hitting percentage until Zach Bailey's kill pulled Loyola to 27-19 and .000 hitting.

The Ramblers continued to have problems with the Warriors' quick middle attack with Dio Dante and La Barre putting down Hawaii's final two points to tie the match.

"We knew they didn't set the middles all that much and that's one of our weaker points, be able to block the middle," Davis said. "They dug a lot of balls and we weren't able to step it up with our passing."

Hawaii's block proved the difference at the end of Game 3. Dante and Beckwith stuffed Corey Kloos to give the Warriors a17-15 lead and jump-start a 6-3 run to give Hawaii a commanding lead.

The Ramblers closed to within 25-23, but a kill by Hakala ended the threat and Loyola never got closer than two the rest of the way.

Hakala opened Game 4 with his 10th kill and Hawaii rode the momentum of a 4-1 start the rest of the way.

Dante wasn't in double figures in kills, but had 10 block assists.

Grunst and Kozlarek led the Ramblers with 13 kills each. Kozlarek also had a team-high 15 digs and was in on three of the team's eight blocks.

Note: Loyola coach Davis was chosen Illinois' top bachelor by Cosmopolitan magazine and featured in last November's issue. Davis, 25, shared the spotlight with bachelors from the 49 other states. A former All-America setter for the Ramblers, Davis holds the school's career record for assists with 5,337.