A crowd of 3,238 watched it in the Stan Sheriff Center last night. There were 1,360 no-shows, not including the four suspended UH players.

Opposite hitter Pedro Azenha, left-side hitter Delano Thomas, primary passer JosŽ JosŽ Delgado and backup middle blocker Dionisio Dante were suspended for breaking an undisclosed team rule last week. Starting setter Brian Beckwith, who attended the match but was not in uniform, is recovering from tonsillitis.

The Warriors nearly lost another starter when outside hitter Ryan Woodward suffered a painful cramp in his right calf in the middle of Game 3. Woodward, who started in place of Thomas, suffered a cramp in his right quadriceps early in the fourth game.

"I wasn't going to let the pain stop me," said Woodward, who applied the ointment Flex-All during timeouts. "I'm a Warrior. We're all warriors."

The Warriors rallied to win Game 3, then overcame several four-point deficits to close to 26-25 in Game 4.

UH coach Mike Wilton wanted to pull Woodward, who winced every time he landed, but the cupboard was bare of experience. Wilton said he needed 6-foot Jake Muise as a serving specialist. The other two available outside hitters — Austin Rester, a former Texas Tech football player, and Kimball Taylor, who spent the previous two years on a church mission — were in UH uniforms for the first time this season.

"We went out there and gave it our all," said 6-foot Arri Jeschke, who started in place of Delgado at outside hitter. "We had nothing to lose."

Matt Bender, who replaced Azenha at opposite hitter, said: "Nobody thought we were going to do well. To take a game from the No. 1 team in the country is something. We rocked them. We made them think twice. If this were a boxing match, it was won by a decision, not a knockout."

The Warriors finished with more kills (66 to 63) and more blocks (10.5 to 9.5). But they gave away 30 points on attack errors and another 20 on service mistakes.

"We could have served a lot better," UH setter Kimo Tuyay said. "I know we were going for it, but sometimes you have to play smart, especially if we miss like three in a row. We have to get the next one in."

Wilton added: "We needed to play a little more consistently. When we served in and put the pressure on, it was a good match. We had a couple of hic-cups here and there."

Meanwhile, the Cougars produced four- and five-point runs when middle blocker Victor Batista, opposite hitter Joe Hillman and outside hitter Fernando Pessoa were serving. The Cougars scored 13 points when Pessoa, a converted libero, was serving.

"They went on a few runs to get ahead, and that was that," Jeschke said.

The Warriors tried several strategies. In the first game, Bender, the opposite hitter, received serves on two rotations. After that, UH went to the basic 5-1 scheme in which only libero Alfred Reft, Jeschke and Woodward were used as passers. "That was good for us," Wilton said.

And good for Bender, who focused on his offense. He led the Warriors with 23 kills.

The Warriors had a height disadvantage on the corners. During one rotation, 6-foot Jeshke and 6-2 Tuyay were in the front row on defense. The Warriors tried to alter the Cougars' offense, positioning the block in an attacker's power alley.

"We were working on making them go away from where they were facing," Bender said. "Our strategy was to make them turn and hit in the other direction. That gave us a chance for digs, touches and some blocks, too."

UH baited BYU's left-handed Hillman to hit down the line instead of crossing shots. The Warriors also put a deep defender in the path of Pessoa's angle shots.

But the Cougars had too many weapons, and setter Carlos Moreno made use of all of them. Moreno set quickly to the middles and to Pessoa (18 kills) and Jonathan Alleman (13 kills) in the back row.

"Moreno is an unbelievable setter," Bender said. "That ball is right where he wants it to be every single time."

The Cougars improved to 16-3 overall and 14-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. By winning their 15th match in a row, they clinched a berth in the MPSF postseason tournament. UH is 13-6 and 10-5.