Provo, Utah » For a brief moment after he emerged from a somber locker room at Smith Fieldhouse on Saturday night, Charlie Wade allowed himself to think about what might have been if the Warriors had made just a few more clutch plays down the stretch.

"That," said the Hawaii men’s volleyball coach, "might have been epic."

Certainly, it would have been the biggest upset in college volleyball this season, perhaps in several seasons.

The Warriors took No. 1 BYU, which won the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title by three games, to the brink of disaster in front of a sellout crowd of 4,500.

But the Cougars took the decisive fifth set 15-13 in the MPSF quarterfinal and won 3-2.

BYU (23-4) moves on to a semifinal matchup Thursday night against UCLA, while eighth-seeded Hawaii sees its season end at 11-17, but with one fantastic, final memory.

"Well, that was a helluva college volleyball match," Wade said. "That was really well played by both teams. Both teams hit for a big clip most of the night. I am just super proud of our guys, man. We have had some adversity over the last couple of weeks, and to come in here and battle on the road against the No. 1 team in the country and have a chance to close the thing out, was pretty special."

The match ended on a mildly controversial call. With BYU leading 14-13, UH apparently had come up with a point to tie. But UH’s setter was called for an illegal back-row attack, and the match point went to the home team. For Hawaii, it was a thoroughly disappointing ending after it led 2-1 by winning the third set, 25-22.

"They call ’em like they see ‘em," Wade said. "I think they got it right. It was such a bang-bang play. As a coach, you kinda want to let them play on match point. But the rules say it doesn’t matter what the score is. They called back-row attack on us there at the end, on our setter, I believe."

BYU coach Chris McGown said it was the right call. Coincidentally, he received a yellow card for protesting too much when a similar call in the third set went against the Cougars.

BYU took the first set 25-19 by hitting .684, and it appeared the favorites would make quick work of their visitors. But the Warriors had other ideas.

They surprised the odds-on favorite to claim the national title in the second and third sets, causing an uneasiness to sweep through the sellout crowd. The Warriors lost their momentum by hitting a woeful .038 in the fourth set.

"We moved Taylor Averill to the opposite, and that really gave us two quick attackers," Wade said. "You could tell that BYU had never seen that. And Taylor had a really good night (16 kills) and then all you have to do is put service pressure on people, which is what we did."

Brook Sedore added 18 kills and four service aces.