No. 1 University of Hawaii volleyball team takes first loss

LONG BEACH, Calif. >> The quest for perfection has ended. The quest for the Big West Conference’s regular-season championship in men’s volleyball continues.

Top-ranked Hawaii staged a dramatic rally in the final set of the Rainbow Warriors’ first five-set match this season. But second-ranked Long Beach State, the defending NCAA champion, repelled that rally to earn a 24-26, 25-22, 16-25, 25-16, 15-13 win Friday night in front of a near-capacity crowd of 4,011 at the Walter Pyramid.

With its 25-match winning streak now history, UH (25-1, 8-1) needs to win tonight’s match against the 49ers (24-1, 9-0) to tie for the regular-season title. If the Warriors win in four sets or fewer, they would receive the championship, since set count is the first tie-breaker.

But what if the Warriors need five sets to win?

“If it goes five again,” UH coach Charlie Wade said, “then they get out the Ouija board.”

(The next in a series of tie-breakers is point differential.).

No mystery surrounded Long Beach’s victory. The hosts used one of the nation’s best service games to put their defense in position to stifle the Warriors.

The 49ers, who entered the match leading the NCAA with 2.03 aces per set, had 10. Senior hitter TJ DeFalco, ranked eighth nationally at 0.52 aces per set, had four.

“They lead the nation in aces per set, and they’ve got three guys who are absolutely as good as it gets from the service line,” Wade said about DeFalco, senior hitter Kyle Ensing and senior setter Josh Tuaniga. “It’s a big part of who they are.”

That part of the 49ers’ identity enabled them to out-block the NCAA’s leader in blocking 14-10.5 without getting a single solo block. Ensing had seven block assists, Punahou alumnus Ethan Siegfried contributed a career-high six and Nick Amado had five.

“Defense, a lot of times, starts on the service line, and they gave us a lot of pressure from the service line,” UH senior setter Joe Worsley said. “We know they’re one of the best serving teams in the country, and we knew we were going to have to pass well and serve well. They got us out of system, and they capitalized on that.”

But the Warriors often played into the hands — or, rather, the arms — of Long Beach’s blockers in hitting .322. Hawaii came in leading the country at .462.

“Frankly, we weren’t real smart,” Wade said. “We challenged (the block) too much and hit straight into the middle of it, certainly more frequently than we needed to.”

The 49ers particularly frustrated junior opposite Rado Parapunov, who had 12 hitting errors and hit just .205 with a season-high 21 kills. Senior hitter Stijn van Tilburg added 16 kills and needs four more to pass Carlos Briceno for seventh place on the program’s career list.

Parapunov had four kills in Set 5, when the Warriors rallied from an 8-3 deficit to force a 9-9 tie. But Ensing’s cross-court kill and a double block by Tuaniga and Shane Holdaway of van Tilburg gave the hosts an 11-9 lead.

UH cut it to one point four times, with Parapunov’s cross-court kill pulling the Warriors to 14-13. However, Amado turned Tuaniga’s quick set into the kill that ended the Warriors’ hopes for an undefeated season.

In Set 1, Hawaii turned a 9-8 deficit into leads of 20-13 and 24-19 only to have the 49ers tie it at 24. But DeFalco’s serve hit the net to give the Warriors their sixth set point and junior hitter Colton Cowell ended it.

In Set 2, the teams reversed roles. Tied 8-8, Ensing pounded four kills during a 7-2 surge that put the Beach ahead 15-11. UH closed within a point four times, with the last being 23-22, before kills from Siegfried and DeFalco enabled the hosts to tie the match.

Hawaii dominated Set 3 and the Beach returned the favor in Set 4. DeFalco had three kills and two aces during an 8-1 blitz that extended the 49ers’ lead from 12-11 to 20-12.

DeFalco and Ensing finished with 18 kills apiece, while DeFalco added nine digs and libero Jordan Molina had 10 digs. Hawaii sophomore libero Gage Worsley matched his career high of 15 digs.

After the loss, Joe Worsley provided a personal solution amid a hopeful message.

“I need to do a better job of getting certain guys into a rhythm,” he said. “We’ll swing better out of system, that way. We’ll be better.”

The 49ers ran their home winning streak to 40. It was the fifth consecutive loss for the Warriors in the Pyramid dating back to 2017.