Coaches and players all know. You work hard to prepare for the bad days because the good days come easy.

“;The easiest thing to remember is that you won,”; UC Irvine men's volleyball coach John Speraw said. “;You forget about the hard times until you hit the bumps in the road.”;

There were plenty of bumps last night for both the No. 7 Anteaters and No. 9 Hawaii in their Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Warriors smoothed them out when it counted the most, holding off five match points when turning back the defending NCAA champions 30-27, 30-20, 27-30, 26-30, 20-18 in 3 hours and 17 minutes.

Freshman opposite Jonas Umlauft put down a career-high 37 kills — a UH rally score record — and junior hitter Joshua Walker added 22 for Hawaii (5-3, 3-2 MPSF). Senior middle Matt Rawson added 12 kills and was in on eight blocks, including the match-ender when teaming with Walker to stop UCI sophomore opposite Carson Clark.

“;We knew where they were going to go and we put up a pretty good block,”; Rawson said after tying his career-high for block assists. “;I think we accepted the challenge. We had worked really hard for this and we weren't going to let them take it away from us.

“;I think we wanted it a little more and everyone stepped up their game at the end.”;

Clark finished with 29 kills and Jordan DuFault added 19 for UCI (5-5, 1-4)

Both teams were 0-1 when going to five sets this season with the Warriors falling to Penn State and the Anteaters to USC.

It looked as if it would be UCI that would pick up its first marathon win when the Anteaters took a 14-13 lead on Cory Yoder's ace. Yoder followed with a service error that tied it for what would be the 10th of 14 times.

Umlauft had all four of Hawaii's kills as the Warriors took their first match point at 19-18. One was all they needed with Rawson and Walker setting off a wild celebration when rejecting Clark.

“;I think everyone in the building knew where the ball was going to go,”; Walker said. “;We had to make sure all of our efforts weren't in vain.”;

“;Any win in league is great, and I'm glad we got one tonight,”; added Hawaii coach Charlie Wade. “;It was really nice to see that we could stay focused and make some plays down the stretch.

“;I was really stoked about the crowd (2,527 turnstile). I really think the crowd was a factor.”;

Hawaii's revamped lineup had sophomore hitter Steven Hunt and junior middle Brennon Dyer making their first starts at home. Dyer replaced senior Steven Grgas, who is out indefinitely with a fractured right hand.

Both Dyer and Hunt contributed from the start, with Hunt's kill sparking a 4-0 run that put the Warriors ahead 20-19.

A kill by Clark tied it at 20. Hawaii held two-point leads four times, the last at 27-25 before UCI caught the Warriors at 27-all.

The Anteaters took a brief lead at 28-27 when DuFault and Austin D'Amore blocked Umlauft. The Warriors answered with a 3-0 run, with Umlauft's ninth kill tying it for the 13th time and two hitting errors by Clark — including being stuffed by Hunt and Rawson for set point — gave Hawaii the set.

The Warriors, with seven service errors in Set 1, cleaned up their serving in cruising in Set 2. Hawaii broke away at 11-8 behind three kills by Umlauft for a 17-9 cushion.

The Warriors enjoyed their biggest lead at 23-12 and the Anteaters never made much of a dent the rest of the way. Although UH lost the point at 24-15, the hustle play of Warrior senior libero Ric Cervantes won the applause of the crowd when bringing a ball from behind the UH bench back over the net.

Umlauft continued to impress, his 19th kill coming on a bang-bang play off a dig by Hunt. The freshman's block of Kevin Carroll gave Hawaii set point at 29-19 and, one sideout later, Dyer's kill had the Warriors heading into the locker room with a 2-0 lead.

Hawaii came out hot early in Set 3, rolling out to a 5-0 lead behind the serves of Nejc Zemljak. The defending national champions were not going down without a fight, clawing back behind Clark and DuFault to take their first lead at 15-14.

Hawaii was able to tie it six times — the last at 24 — but never could regain the lead or the momentum. UCI finished it out with a 6-3 run, led by Clark, who had 10 kills in Set 3.

The Warriors played catch-up from the start of Set 4, falling behind 5-1, 9-5 and 12-7. Hawaii's serving, which had steadied out, began to fail, killing the Warriors' hopes of stringing together some points.

Hawaii finally found some consistency late when cutting a 26-21 deficit down to 26-23. But Walker's service error pushed the margin back to four and the Warriors never got closer than three the rest of the way.

Yesterday
Hawaii def. UC Irvine 30-28, 30-20, 27-30, 26-30, 20-18
UCLA def. BYU, 40-38, 30-21, 30-24
Long Beach State def. UC San Diego, 30-22, 30-22, 30-21
CSU Northridge def. Stanford, 25-30, 30-21, 30-25, 34-32, 15-12
Pepperdine def. USC, 33-31, 26-30, 27-30, 31-29, 15-10
UC Santa Barbara def. Pacific, 30-24, 30-16, 30-21
Tomorrow
UC Irvine at Hawaii, 7 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center
BYU at UCLA
CSU Northridge at Pacific Wednesday
USC at CSU Northridge
Pacific at Stanford
Pepperdine at UC Santa Barbara