Now THIS is March Madness.

Forget about the 64-team men's basketball tournament that started yesterday. The insanity that's been Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball for the past seven weeks ups the crazy factor tonight with two series getting under way at the antipodes of the conference, with No. 5 Hawaii hosting No. 8 Long Beach State and No. 7 USC traveling to No. 4 Brigham Young.

The four teams involved are in a virtual tie for fourth place, with the 49ers percentage points ahead of the other three. Even though there are four weeks remaining in the regular season, the results from the contests in Honolulu and Provo, Utah, could very well determine who gets to host a first-round MPSF playoff match.

“;If someone could sweep this week, that could vault that team up there with Stanford and Pepperdine,”; Long Beach State coach Andy Read said of the teams tied at the top of the MPSF. “;And if a team gets swept, they're going to be looking at the back end of the standings and saying, 'What happened?'

“;I'm expecting some great volleyball between us and Hawaii. Both know what's riding on these matches. No surprise if it's 28-all in each game. It will all come down to someone making that play at the end. I hope it's us.”;

The Warriors will have something to say about that as they continue on their road to redemption. Hawaii has not beaten The Beach since 2007, also the last time UH advanced to the MPSF playoffs.

Hawaii has been home for the past 10 days following a grueling four-matches-in-five-days road trip. The Warriors went 2-2, splitting the series at Cal State Northridge and USC, and hold the tiebreaker over the third-place Matadors and the Trojans, as well as with BYU.

“;No doubt that all matches are critical, but the matches within this group this week are really critical,”; Warriors coach Charlie Wade said. “;These could affect who ends up being No. 4, and hosting, and No. 5, and traveling. We have to stay ahead of Long Beach State.

“;They've been good on the road, won some key away matches at Pepperdine and UCLA. There's no doubt in my mind that they'll be ready to play in our building.”;

The 49ers flew in yesterday and got in a late afternoon practice at Gym 1. These will be The Beach's first MPSF matches since falling at No. 1 Stanford on March 6.

Last week in The Pyramid, the 49ers defeated Loyola-Chicago and Saint Francis, and were swept by Penn State, 30-28, 30-28, 30-27. The latter match was tied at 28-all in both Sets 1 and 2.

“;We just needed to make one more play at the end and didn't,”; Read said.

Read is Long Beach State's interim coach through 2012 while Alan Knipe coaches the U.S. men's national team. Read was Knipe's assistant for 13 years.

“;It's different getting to call your own shots,”; he said. “;It's been a pretty easy transition, having been here for so long.

“;Hawaii's much improved and I give Charlie (Wade) a lot of credit. What tells me how good they are was the ability to come back and win the second night at both Northridge and SC.”;

Read has several names on his roster familiar to Hawaii fans. Senior hitter Tommy Pestolesi is the son of former Warrior Tom Pestolesi and Rainbow Wahine Diane Sebastian Pestolesi; junior libero Kory Matsukado was all-league at Kamehameha before moving to California for his senior year; and freshman hitter Trevor Crabb (Punahou '09) is redshirting.

Wade feels that the 49ers are very similar to Cal State Northridge and BYU, with two big, effective middles. Junior Antwain Aguillard leads the MPSF in hitting percentage (.517), while senior Dan Alexander is seventh (.451).

Leading the 49ers' attack is opposite Dean Bittner (4.80 kps, 23 aces). Pestolesi has come on strong since replacing the injured Kyle Friend, including performances against UC Irvine (24 kills, .488) and UCLA (15 kills, .431) that earned him national player of the week honors earlier this month.

Hawaii counters with freshman opposite Jonas Umlauft (4.82 kps) and junior hitter Joshua Walker (4.50 kps), both of whom rank in the top six in MPSF kills. Senior middle Matt Rawson (1.22 bps) is fifth in blocks.

“;I do think we returned a better team than when we left,”; Wade said. “;I was really impressed by the way our guys handled the road. It was a brutal trip.

“;They battled through the fatigue, especially that last match at SC. The games going to 30 (points) are so long, you have to be present and focused for 3 hours. You have to maintain the mental focus and we were able to do that.”;