No. 6 Hawaii earns 16th straight win with victory over Long Beach State

LONG BEACH, Calif. >> Before the public-address announcer at the Walter Pyramid introduced Long Beach State’s starters Friday night, Hawaii’s players stood and watched video highlights of the 49ers hitting, blocking and celebrating during previous home matches against the Rainbow Wahine.

Slightly more than two hours later, No. 6 Hawaii solidified its hold on first place in the Big West and earned its 16th consecutive win by turning Long Beach State’s two-year-old conference home win streak into history.

The Wahine had to survive a ragged first set, in which they couldn’t convert on three set points, to earn a 26-28, 25-22, 25-13, 25-20 win in front of 2,149.

UH (21-1, 11-0) extended its lead over the 49ers (20-6, 10-3), who fell to third place behind Cal Poly (17-5, 9-2). The Mustangs held off visiting UC Irvine in five Friday night.

"This gives us a lot of fire heading into the postseason, which is what we really need finishing up our conference matches," said opposite hitter Nikki Taylor, who had 20 kills and 14 digs.

The Wahine will bring a two-match lead over the Mustangs into tonight’s contest at CSUN (5-18, 4-7), where UH last won in 2012.

"After a big win like this, you hope you don’t have a letdown against Northridge," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "We still have Cal Poly lurking."

Long Beach, seeking its 17th consecutive conference win at the Pyramid, survived 15 ties and five lead changes to take the first set after preventing the Wahine from converting set point three times.

With UH holding a 26-25 lead, the 49ers’ Hayley Benson and Jenelle Hudson combined on a block to tie the score. Long Beach moved ahead when Tai Manu- Olevao’s attempted kill went wide, then secured the set on Ashley Murray’s hard tip.

The hosts hit .302 in Set 1, while the Wahine committed nine attack errors and hit .208.

"I didn’t feel like they did anything crazy," middle hitter Olivia Magill said of the 49ers. "We just didn’t get tips, stuff like that. But we cleaned it up. Dave was like, ‘Don’t hit the crazy shot. Do what you can.’ So I thought people were more mentally focused."

That focus helped provide the mortar for the Great Wall of Manoa, which amassed 13 of UH’s 14 team blocks in the final three sets. Blocks enabled the Wahine — the top blocking team in the country — to score three of their final four points in the second set.

The Beach rallied from a 15-11 deficit to force a 21-21 tie. But after the 49ers’ Sarah Miller served long to give UH the lead, Taylor blocked Peyton Grahovac and Nele Barber on successive points. Murray’s spike off a quick set narrowed the deficit to 24-22, but Kalei Greeley blocked Grahovac for the win.

The Wahine, 22-0 in Set 2 this season, took the court for Set 3 with a different personality.

"We knew we really had to solidify the third set so it would give us good momentum going into the fourth," Taylor said. "We were making way too many mistakes in the first two sets. We knew that if we were going to be able to win in four, we needed to win the third set with fire."

A 5-0 surge gave UH a 10-4 lead in the third set, which the Wahine concluded with a 6-0 spree. Taylor amassed seven kills, Emily Maglio added three block assists and Tayler Higgins contributed four digs in the set.

Hawaii opened Set 4 on an 8-0 run, including four aces off Higgins’ powerful jump serve. UH’s serving held the 49ers to hitting percentages of .133, .139 and .206 in the final three sets.

"We started serving a lot smarter," Shoji said. "We started hitting some areas that we knew they would have trouble running their offense. When they were out of system, it made it much easier on us because we knew where they had to go."

Taylor elaborated.

"The only thing they could run was high and to the outside," she said. "That was really easy for our team to defend."

It was the second time this season that Hawaii had five attackers in double-figure kills. Manu-Olevao and Maglio finished with 11, and Magill and Greeley 10 each.

Barber led the 49ers with 16 kills.

Big west volleyball

Friday

Hawaii def. Long Beach State, 26-28, 25-22, 25-13, 

Cal Poly1 def. UC Irvine, 9-25, 25-19, 25-22, 22-25, 15-10 

UC Davis def. UC Santa Barbara, 25-19, 25-18, 25-14 

Today

Hawaii at CSUN, 5 p.m. HST 

UC Davis at Cal Poly 

UC Irvine at UC Santa Barbara 

UC Riverside at CSU Fullerton

No. 6 Hawaii def. Long Beach State 26-28, 25-22, 25-13, 25-20

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 — Hawaii 6 (Higgins 4, Greeley, Granato). LBSU 1 (Benson). Service errors — Hawaii 6 (Greeley 2, Higgins, Taylor, Kahakai, Manu-Olevao). LBSU 6 (Owens 2, Barber, Hudson, Lawmaster, Miller). Assists — Hawaii 57 (Higgins 42, Koelsch 12, Kahakai 3). LBSU 50 (Hudson 40, Lawmaster 3, Grahovac 2, Miller 2, Barber, Kruidhof, Owens). 

T — 2:05. Officials –Eric Asami, Dan Apol. A — 2,149.