Long Beach blasts Hawaii again

Midway through conference play, there are many questions. More worrisome, there seem to be very few answers.

No. 7 Hawaii’s struggles continued Friday night, with the Rainbow Warriors losing a third straight home match in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball play for the first time since 2012.

No. 1 Long Beach State’s lights-out defense and brilliant efforts from rising stars Kyle Ensing and TJ DeFalco had Hawaii and a crowd of 3,764 leaving the Stan Sheriff Center with their collective head shaking. Freshman opposite Ensing had 13 kills and DeFalco, a freshman outside hitter, his second double-double of the trip (11 kills, 15 digs) as the 49ers (15-2, 12-2) needed just 100 minutes to win their ninth straight, 25-14, 25-20, 25-19.

For the first time all season, the Warriors had no player in double-figure kills. Senior hitter Siki Zarkovic, junior hitter Kupono Fey and freshman opposite Stijn van Tilburg finished with eight as Hawaii hit just .162 to The Beach’s .385.

“We’re trying to get out of our funk,” freshman middle Nainoa Frank said after his first start of the season. “We’ll keep plugging away, work on getting better and getting more confidence.”

It was the sixth loss in seven matches for Hawaii (10-7, 5-7) and the first time the Warriors have been swept at home since last year’s Outrigger Resorts Invitational, when UC Irvine won in straight sets, a span of 24 matches.

With a short week and the next match with No. 2 BYU on Wednesday, Hawaii has little time to figure out a lineup. Friday night, the Warriors went with freshman Joe Worsley, making his second start, and although the energy was better at the beginning that it was Wednesday, the result was still the same.

“Long Beach played awesome,” Worsley said. “That’s a really good team.”

The 49ers finished with 40 digs and, in a three-set match, “that’s something you don’t see in the women’s game, and it’s unheard of in men’s,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “We were crushing balls from the beginning and their floor defense was the best I’ve seen.

“We’d be right with them, then give up two-, three-point runs, and it was over.”

While Long Beach State remained atop the MPSF with a half-game lead, Hawaii dropped to eighth. The top eight teams advance to the postseason conference tournament.

But the Warriors have bigger concerns than that. They used both setters, four middles and six different hitters while trying to find some consistency in the two matches with the 49ers.

Wade said he’ll continue to shake up the lineup “as we keep trying to get better. We are a work in progress.”

It was not the case with Long Beach State, which continues to start three freshmen, including DeFalco, a bona fide national freshman of the year candidate. Although DeFalco was not the kill leader Friday night, “he does so many other things for us when he’s not (the kill leader),” 49ers coach Alan Knipe said.

DeFalco was in on five of the team’s 11 blocks as the 49ers finished with an 11-6.5 edge in stuffs. The dig difference was 40-25.

Freshman setter Josh Tuaniga opened and closed Set 1 from the service line for the Beach, serving for the first three points and the last four. In between, the 49ers dominated, hitting .500 and outblocking the Warriors 3.5-0.

Wade stayed with Worsley — making his second career start and first at the Sheriff Center — and swapped junior middle Iain McKellar for starter Hendrik Mol. Hawaii jumped out to quick leads of 4-1 and 6-3 only to have Long Beach State go on a 5-0 run and, helped by several questionable calls, the 49ers took the lead for good at 8-6.

Two aces by van Tilburg brought Hawaii to within 17-16 and the Warriors traded points to 18-17 and 19-18. The 49ers gained separation with three unanswered points, capped by Ensing’s ninth kill and, at 23-20, Tuaniga again served out the set to put Long Beach State up 2-0.

With junior Jennings Franciskovic returning to set in the third, Hawaii found a little rhythm early but not nearly enough. The Warriors again were within a point several times, the last at 10-9, only to have Tuaniga go on another serving run to pull away at 13-9.

Trailing 21-14, the Warriors rallied to within 23-19, forcing Knipe to call a timeout. The 49ers answered with a kill by Ensing and a block of Fey to complete the sweep.

MPSF VOLLEYBALL

Friday

Long Beach State def. Hawaii 25-15, 25-20, 25-19

BYU def. CSUN 25-21, 25-18, 25-15

Stanford def. UC Irvine 25-16, 25-16, 27-25

UC Santa Barbara def. Cal Baptist 25-20, 25-16, 25-20

Today

UCLA at USC

Pepperdine at UC Irvine

CSUN at BYU

No. 1 Long Beach State def. No. 7 Hawaii, 25-14, 25-20, 25-19

Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills plus blocks plus aces).Service Aces — LBSU 1 (DeFalco). Hawaii 3 (van Tilburg 2, Zarkovic).Service errors — LBSU 6 (K. Ensing, Tuaniga, DeFalco, Gregory, Yould, E. Ensing). Hawaii 8 (Worsley 2, van Tilburg 2, Franciskovic 2, Mol, Cowell). Assists — LBSU 43 (Tuaniga 37, Sato 4, DeFalco, Gregory). Hawaii 28 (Worsley 18, Franciskovic 9, van Tilburg). T — 1:40. Officials — Donna Hess, Dixon Chun. A — 4,875.