BYU repeats sweep of Warriors

Close but couldn’t close.

That was the story on Saturday night when No. 4 Hawaii let late leads slip away against No. 3 Brigham Young. The Cougars threw a block party inside Smith Fieldhouse, surpassing the season-high 12 from Friday with 14 on Saturday to sweep the Rainbow Warriors for a second consecutive night.

Senior hitter Jake Langlois and junior hitter Brenden Sander had 12 kills apiece, and freshman middle Miki Jauhiainen was in on a career-high eight blocks in the 25-19, 25-23, 28-26 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball victory. It was the 13th straight win for BYU (19-2, 13-1 MPSF), which clinched host duties for an MPSF tournament quarterfinal on April 15.

Top-ranked Long Beach State (21-2, 14-1) also will host a quarterfinal. The 49ers travel for two at BYU next week, which likely will decide the MPSF champion and tournament top seed.

The Warriors (20-4, 10-4) already are guaranteed a top-eight finish and a spot in the quarterfinals. Hawaii’s hosting fate is in its own hands with this week’s matches against Cal State Northridge (12-12, 5-10) — the final two of the regular season at the Stan Sheriff Center — critical for the Warriors’ hopes.

One hope that Hawaii coach Charlie Wade has is that the two losses to BYU will have made his team better. The Warriors’ other two MPSF losses were to Long Beach State, also on the road, “and we came back a better team,” he said in a postmatch phone call. “We learned stuff about ourselves then and I think we’ll come back a better team after these losses.

“We had opportunities but didn’t make the plays. We faced adversity tonight and managed to come back. We gave ourselves chances but didn’t convert.”

One thing that was out of Hawaii’s control was a call late in Set 2 when the Warriors were leading 22-18. The linesman signaled that a serve by Warriors hitter Brett Rosenmeier hit the antenna and “that was just bogus,” Wade said. “The down ref said she didn’t see. No one saw it except that linesman, and they went with the linesman’s call … ”

Hawaii didn’t recover, with that point leading to three as BYU pulled to within 22-21. The teams traded points and, at 23-21, the Cougars scored four straight, capped by a hitting error by UH freshman Austin Matautia.

Set 3 was even tighter. Hawaii again led late, at 22-20 and 23-22. A kill by Sander meant the 16th tie of the set and the Warriors held off three match points, tying it for the 19th and final time, 26-all, on Matautia’s ninth kill.

Langlois’ kill gave the Cougars their fourth shot at ending it, with Langlois and Jauhiainen finishing it after 107 minutes by blocking sophomore opposite Stijn van Tilburg.

Van Tilburg was the only Warrior in double-figure kills, finishing with a match-high 17.

“I thought our guys’ approach tonight was strong,” Cougars coach Shawn Olmsted told BYU media. “I’m really proud of them for being calm and scoring points when they needed it.

“It solidifies a lot of their work and, with a win over a team like Hawaii, I feel like we’re making strides, especially in blocking.”

BYU finished with a 14-4.5 edge in blocking over Hawaii, which came into the week as the top blocking team in the country.