Warriors turn back 49ers

Hawaii wins its eighth match in a row to move into a tie for seventh place

LONG BEACH, Calif. » Los Alamitos Race Course is not too far from the Hawaii volleyball team hotel. Had the Warriors placed a wager there a month ago that they'd win eight in a row, they'd be cashing in at the OTB window before returning home today.

Instead, the winnings mean Hawaii has all but secured a playoff spot in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament. The 13th-ranked Warriors won their eighth straight last night, downing No. 9 Long Beach State 25-30, 30-24, 30-24, 30-28 in 1 hour and 55 minutes at The Walter Pyramid.

It was just the fourth time in the rivalry -- begun in 1981 -- that Hawaii won the season series on the 49ers' home court. The Warriors improved to 11-13 overall, 9-11 MPSF, and are tied with USC for seventh.

If the season ended today, Hawaii -- which has the tiebreaker with the Trojans -- would be hosting USC for the play-in match April 18. But the Warriors, with two matches left this coming week against Stanford -- tied for last -- don't want to get ahead of themselves.

"All season, all that's mattered was 'the next' match," Hawaii coach Mike Wilton said. "All that matters is who's next, and that's Stanford. Those will be big ones for us as well."

Losing twice to Hawaii eliminated Long Beach State from playoff contention. Even if the 49ers (11-13, 6-14) won both their road matches next week at UCLA and UC Irvine, the highest they could finish is ninth.

The top eight make the tournament.

Hawaii didn't want to leave anything to chance when it came to its playoff aspirations. Led by senior Lauri Hakala's 20 kills and a block that rebounded from being outplayed the night before, the Warriors persevered.

Senior middle Dio Dante again came up huge at the net, with a match-high 11 blocks, while freshman middle Matt Rawson and senior setter Brian Beckwith were each in on 10. The Warriors finished with a 24.5-10 edge in stuffs.

Freshman hitter Ernie Vidinha came off the bench in Game 2 to help settle down Hawaii's passing and finished with 11 kills. Senior Eric Kalima had a team-high 10 digs.

Dean Bittner had 16 kills and Paul Lotman 14 for the 49ers, losers of six in a row. Freshman Tommy Pestolesi -- whose father Tom and mother Diane Sebastian were both All-Americans at Hawaii -- added 11 kills.

"I liked the fact that we won the serve-receive battle tonight," Wilton said, his team having a 6-2 edge in aces. "We were very tenacious and steady for the most part.

"I was concerned when Lauri (Hakala) was hitting 0, with four kills and four errors, but he answered the bell. After Game 1, I didn't have to say anything to fire our guys up. It's not that we were playing bad, it's that Long Beach was playing pretty good."

After dropping Game 1, Hawaii finally broke away in a tight game 2. It was tied 12 times, the last at 18, when Rawson and Hakala teamed to block Lotman, starting a 3-0 UH run.

The 49ers could never get closer than 23-22.

Hawaii took control early in Game 3 and rode seven blocks and three aces to take a 2-1 lead. The Warriors dominated Game 4 until late, when the 49ers more than made a game of it. They scored five straight points to close to 26-25 but never managed to tie.

Norm Hutton's sixth kill gave The Beach hope at 29-28, but Hakala ended it with his 20th kill.

"We sided-out really well tonight," Wilton said. "For the most part, we did a good job of holding onto the lead.

"We started with eight (MPSF match) increments (to win) and we've done six. I hope we've given people a reason so come out and watch Nos. 7 and 8."