Sweep snaps Warriors' skid

Lauri Hakala had a too-hot-to-handle outing last night

The Finns have a word for it: löyly.

It's the warmth given off by the steam rising from hot stones in a sauna.

It's also the heat Lauri Hakala puts on his attacks.

The Finnish national had a too-hot-to-handle outing last night, leading No. 14 Hawaii to a sweep of No. 8 Cal State Northridge, 30-25, 30-25, 30-26, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball match at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Hakala put down 16 kills in 31 swings without an error to help the Warriors end a four-match losing streak and improve to 4-13 overall, 4-11 MPSF. Matt Vanzant added 11 kills, and Eric Kalima had an impressive defensive performance with nine digs in handing the Matadors (13-10, 7-7) their first loss in six matches.

The teams meet again tonight at 7.

"This is sweet," Hakala said after the 1 hour , 41-minute match. "I really liked how we played as a team. If I don't put it down, we have our blockers. And we have two great defensive guys (Kalima and libero Ric Cervantes).

"We need to do it again tomorrow."

Kalima, generously listed at 6 feet, had just two kills, but put down the most important: the one that gave Hawaii aloha ball for the first time since defeating USC on Feb. 16.

It was also the first time in a long while that the Warriors were in system consistently.

"That was the most surprising thing, that they played so well the whole match," CSUN junior libero Isaac Kneubuhl, a Kamehameha Schools graduate, said. "It's hard because we've been playing so well and we know they've been struggling, that their season is on the line.

"You could see the urgency on their side of the court. And it wasn't on ours."

The Matadors have lived and died with their serve. Last night, it failed them, with five aces to 22 errors, including the one by Dan Rhodes that ended the match. The Warriors also had five aces -- three by setter Brian Beckwith -- to go with just nine errors.

"I'm very happy for the guys -- they've worked so hard all season and it's fun to see them get a win against a good team," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "Hakala with 16 kills and no errors? That will work.

"And Kalima ... he's not much of a threat hitting-wise, but we need him for all the other stuff he gives us out there."

Hawaii threw a block party in the first two games, with 11.5. Matt Rawson was in on five and Kalima, Beckwith and Dio Dante each had four block assists.

The Warriors didn't have a block in Game 3, but neither did the Matadors, who only had two blocks the entire match, one in each of the frist two games.

"Hawaii blocked us off the court," said Kneubuhl, a teammate of Kalima's on Kamehameha's 2001 state championship team. "The thing is we scouted them, we knew what they could do. But it all goes back to serving. We're a relatively small team and when you don't serve tough it all snowballs from there."

Rhodes led CSUN with 15 kills and Eric Vance 14.

"I'm happy we got the win but we need to refocus and do the same thing again tomorrow," Kalima said.

Hawaii def. CSU Northridge 30-25, 30-25, 30-26

Matadors (13-10, 7-7 MPSF)

	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Pedersen	3	4	1	7	.429	0	1	6
Lischer	3	6	1	10	.500	0	1	2
Waite	2	0	1	4	-.250	0	1	0
Rhodes	3	15	8	31	.226	0	1	5
Gaudino	3	5	4	17	.059	0	0	5
Vance	3	14	8	29	.207	0	0	4
Kneubuhl	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	9
Carter	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Bluemling	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	2
McKniff	2	2	0	7	.286	0	0	0
Adams	1	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Totals	3	46	23	105	.219	0	4	33

Warriors (4-14, 4-11 MPSF)

	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Rawson	3	1	1	5	.000	0	5	0
Kalima	3	2	5	14	-.214	0	4	9
Hakala	3	16	0	31	.516	0	3	5
Beckwith	3	1	0	2	.500	0	4	5
Dante	3	5	1	13	.308	0	4	1
Vanzant	3	11	5	25	.240	1	1	6
Cervantes	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	5
Totals	3	36	12	90	.267	1	21	31

Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.

Aces -- CSUN (5): Vance 2, Pedersen, Gaudino, McKniff. Hawaii (5): Beckwith 3, Kalima, Dante. Assists -- CSUN (46): Pedersen 31, Bluemling 8, Gaudino 4, Kneubuhl 3. Hawaii (33): Beckwith 31, Kalima, Cervantez.

T -- 1:41. Officials -- Ernie Ho, Dan Hironaka. A --1,617.

MPSF standings

	Conference	Overall
	W	L	Pct.	W	L
Pepperdine	13	1	.929	17	1
UC Irvine	14	3	.824	21	3
BYU	11	3	.786	15	4
UC Santa Barbara	10	7	.588	15	9
UCLA	9	8	.529	14	9
Pacific	8	8	.500	13	10
CSU Northridge	7	7	.500	13	10
Long Beach St.	6	8	.429	10	9
USC	6	9	.400	9	11
Hawaii	4	11	.267	4	13
UC San Diego	2	13	.133	5	16
Stanford	2	14	.125	3	19

Yesterday

Hawaii def. Cal State Northridge 30-25, 30-25, 30-26

USC def. UC San Diego 30-24, 30-15, 30-26

UCLA def. Ball State 30-23, 30-22, 30-21

Long Beach State def. IPFW 30-25, 30-24, 26-30, 26-30, 15-12

Tonight

Cal State Northridge at Hawaii, 7 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center

Pepperdine at UC San Diego

Penn State at Long Beach State