Perhaps a change of scenery will help.

That's got to be the thinking for No. 4 BYU, which saw its domination of Hawaii end in stunning fashion last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

As a raucous crowd of 2,806 watched, the eighth-ranked Warriors outlasted the Cougars 30-17, 28-30, 31-33, 30-28, 15-10. With a balanced attack, Hawaii defeated BYU for the first time in seven meetings and denied the Cougars a chance to remain tied with Pepperdine for the lead in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

Instead, the Warriors snapped their two-match MPSF losing streak to improve to 5-4 in league play, 8-5 overall. Jonas Umlauft, Steven Hunt and Joshua Walker each put down 19 kills to pace Hawaii.

Matt Rawson was one block shy of his first double-double, finishing with nine stuffs to go with 10 kills.

The Cougars (9-5, 7-4) got 18 kills from Robbie Stowell. Andrew Stewart finished with 15 kills and Kauai High product Futi Tavana 14.

The teams meet again at 5 p.m. today at War Memorial Gym in Wailuku.

Hawaii won its third five-setter, pulling away from a 6-6 tie to take the lead for good on Steven Grgas' kill. The Warriors scored four more for an 11-6 lead and withstood a furious Cougar challenge to prevail in 3 hours and 6 minutes.

Hawaii couldn't have played much better in Set 1, out-BYU-ing BYU with a stifling block and sizzling serves. Rawson was in on four of the Warriors' 6 1/2 blocks and Nejc Zemljak had three of their four aces.

Two of Zemljak's aces came during his 9-0 serving run that kept the Cougars off-balance. Even two timeouts by BYU couldn't break the rhythm, with Hawaii pulling away to a 29-16 advantage.

The Cougars held off one set point but not the second. Walker put down his sixth kill to end it, capping a set that saw Hawaii hit .400 to BYU's .107.

The Cougars made wholesale changes to their lineup in Set 2, including switching out setters, bringing in Yamil Perez for Reed Chilton. The one constant was Tavana, who had six kills in seven swings in helping BYU seemingly take control at 24-19.

Hawaii didn't panic, slowly chipping away behind Walker's four kills and two by Umlauft to catch the Cougars at 26. BYU answered with two kills from Stewart to gain separation at 28-26 and only need to sideout to even the match as Tavana and Stewart blocked Umlauft to end it.

The Cougars took advantage of a controversial call by the officials to jump out to a 21-19 lead in the pivotal Set 3. Once again, the Warriors battled back to tie it five times, with Umlauft's kill knotting it at 28.

Hunt gave Hawaii its first swing at taking the set and, one sideout later, a BYU service error had the Warriors again swinging for it at 30-29.

The Cougars hung tough, with kills by Stowell and Stewart giving BYU its first set point. Grgas and Walker blocked Stowell to tie it for the 25th and final time. Stowell responded with his 11th kill and Stewart followed with his 11th to give the Cougars the 2-1 lead.

The Warriors weren't ready to start packing for Maui. With Hunt finding his rhythm for two consecutive kills, Hawaii took the lead at the technical timeout at 15-14.

The teams traded points before Rawson's ninth kill jump-started a 3-0 run that seemingly put the Warriors in a good position at 19-16.

Hawaii expanded the margin to five, the last at 24-19, before BYU challenged, closing to 26-24 on a kill by Stowell.

Rawson's 10th kill again gave the Warriors a two-point margin, only to have a service error by Walker and a block of Umlauft tie it at 28. Hunt's 17th missile gave Hawaii set point and, unlike Set 3, the Warriors only needed one attempt to end it, with the Cougars misplaying Rawson's serve.