This ... was ... HUGE.

Not only did No. 5 Hawaii pull out a marathon victory over No. 8 Long Beach State last night, the Warriors earned the tiebreaker over the 49ers should they need it in the conference playoffs.

Thanks to 28 kills each by Jonas Umlauft and Joshua Walker, Hawaii turned back Long Beach State, 33-35, 30-25, 30-20, 25-30, 15-5. An animated crowd of 2,415 saw the Warriors improve to 14-7 overall, 10-6 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play.

Hawaii is tied for fourth with Brigham Young.

Long Beach State fell to 11-10 and 7-7. The 49ers dropped into a tie with USC for seventh.

Three kills each by Walker and Umlauft had the Warriors rolling out to a 9-3 lead in the deciding Set 5. Hawaii stuffed Dean Bittner to end it after 3 hours and 4 minutes.

It was the Warriors' fourth win in six five-set matches, while the 49ers fell to 3-3 when it goes five.

Bittner finished with 26 kills and Jim Baughman 20.

Set 1 was tied 12 times before Hawaii went out to a 15-13 lead. The Warriors led by as many as three, the last at 29-26 when taking their first swing at ending it.

The 49ers didn't blink, catching the Warriors at 29 on the second of Dan Alexander's aces. Hawaii had four more shots to win it, the last at 33-32 on Walker's 10th kill. The Beach answered each time, with consecutive kills by Bittner giving the 49ers their first set point at 34-33. The visitors made good on their first attempt, as Bittner and Alexander blocked Steven Hunt.

While Walker was very effective (10 kills, one error, hitting .600), Hawaii got only a combined nine kills from its other two outside hitters (Umlauft and Hunt), and no kills out of the middles.

Things changed in Set 2, with Nejc Zemljak diversifying the offense. Walker continued his hot hitting, putting down six kills, but Umlauft got into a rhythm with seven kills, and Brennon Dyer—starting in place of injured middle Matt Rawson—added three kills as Hawaii evened the match at 1-1.

As happened in Set 1, Set 2 was tight early with five ties and the Warriors again taking a 15-13 lead at the technical timeout. Hawaii pulled away at 22-18 and—deja vu time—Bittner put down three kills to bring the 49ers to within 23-21.

This time, the Warriors held. Walker's two kills sandwiched one by Umlauft, giving Hawaii breathing room at 26-21.

The Beach rallied to within 27-25, helped by three kills from Baughman. That was as close as the 49ers got. Umlauft pounded down his 12th kill and Walker's ace gave the Warriors set point at 29-25. Courtesy of Bittner hitting long, Hawaii went into the break with the match tied at 1-1.

Zemljak, who had seven aces Friday, picked up his first one last night to give the Warriors a 2-1 lead in Set 3. The 49ers took advantage of a stretch of uncharacteristic miscommuncation on Hawaii's side of the court for their largest lead of the match at 7-4. The Warriors regrouped, with Steven Grgas slamming back an overpass to jump-start a 6-1 run that put Hawaii ahead for good at 10-8.

At 18-12, the 49ers got on a roll of their own, outscoring the Warriors 7-2 to pull to within 19-18. Baughman's serving error put the margin back to two; by the time Umlauft was done with his stint on the backline, the margin was eight, a run that included two aces.

There would be no rally from The Beach. Hawaii scored the final three points, capping it with an ace by Grgas.

The 49ers had four aces in Set 1 and didn't have another until Bittner's bullet put his team ahead 7-3. The Beach added three more aces to extend their lead to 18-12.

Walker and Umlauft kept Hawaii close, combining for five kills as the Warriors whittled the deficit to 22-19.

The 49ers surged ahead at 24-19 but saw their lead shrink to 24-22 on three unforced errors.

Hawaii never closed the gap. The 49ers scored the final three points, with Baughman's ace—his team's fifth of the set—sending the match to Set 5.