"Pedro was the man tonight," Dante said following the Warriors' 25-30, 30-22, 30-18, 30-21 victory over Pacific before a boisterous crowd of 2,860 in the Stan Sheriff Center. "He's our go-to guy. I can't say enough good things about him. He's the Kobe Bryant of our team. You want to keep giving him the ball."

The outcome helped the Warriors improve to 14-7 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and remain in a third-place tie with Brigham Young. If the Warriors win tonight's rematch against Pacific in the regular-season finale, they will host Long Beach State in the opening round of next week's MPSF playoffs.

MPSF champion Pepperdine has a bye until the semifinals, and the next three seeds host first-round matches.

"We knew we had to win," Dante said. "(The Tigers) have nothing to lose because they're not in the playoffs. They played with a lot of heart out there. They were serving like no other in the beginning."

But then Azenha, a 6-foot-7 outside hitter from Brazil, seized control with his powerful jump serves. With UH leading 12-9 in Game 2, Azenha served four consecutive points, acing three in a row. He also had three consecutive aces during a 5-0 run in Game 3.

Pedro Azenha

Matt Bender

"When he's on with his serve, he's unstoppable," Bender said. "His serve has such tremendous power. I'm totally envious. He's got an arm like a whip. I'm in the front row when he's serving, and I'm thinking, 'If he hits me in the back of the head, it's light's out. My eyes will pop out of the front of my skull.' "

Azenha appeared to gain strength from the student section's chants of "Pay-Dro! Pay-Dro!"

"It was fun," said Azenha, who also slammed 11 kills. "I was confident in my serve. I was trying to serve harder and harder every time."

Pacific opposite hitter Brian Zodrow said: "He serves so hard, he forces the defense to back up. Then he can serve it short. He mixes it up really well."

Azenha's serves altered the momentum and, in the final three games, it was the Tigers' turn to play on their heels.

"In the first game, our passing was a little bit off," Bender said. "Not to discredit our passers, because they're great, but (the Tigers) were serving bombs out there. Then we started to pass better and serve better."

Dante said: "We got into our rhythm and I think they fell out of theirs."

As the match progressed, the Warriors were able to solve the Tigers' quick block. In Game 1, the Warriors committed eight attack errors and were rejected five times. In the final three games, the Warriors made three attack errors — zip in Game 4 — in 77 swings.

"That works," UH coach Mike Wilton said. "We try to teach our players, if a situation is not wonderful — if the block is well formed — hit something smart and live to fight another battle rather than making a hitting error. A hitting error is the worst thing you can do in volleyball. We did a good job of avoiding that."