In a volleyball match played to exhaustion, the University of Hawai'i emerged — bruised and weary — with a 30-25, 27-30, 30-23, 34-32 victory over Long Beach State last night in the Stan Sheriff Center.

"We were the little Volkswagen trying to climb that hill without all of its cylinders," UH coach Mike Wilton said. "We gave it everything we had. We battled and battled. The neat thing is we figured out a way to win. That's probably the best thing I can say."

In sweeping the two-match series, the Warriors exacted revenge against the team that ousted them from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs last year, and figured out how to adjust to the most pressurized situations.

The 49ers failed to close out Game 4 when outside hitter Robert Tarr's 52nd kill attempt landed wide right by a pinkie fingernail. The Warriors went ahead, 33-32, on 49er middle blocker Kevin Cape's attack error, and won it when Matt Carere parlayed libero Alfee Reft's sprawling dig into a laser down the left sideline.

"Every time we made a good play, they made a better one," 49er setter Tyler Hildebrand said. "We almost had them during Game 4. We played as good as we could, but that wasn't enough. That doesn't mean they're necessarily better than us. They made the right plays at the right time."

Pick a UH player, any player. Each had his moments.

Outside hitter José José Delgado slammed a career-high 26 kills in a variety of ways. He blasted away off pipe sets from behind the 3-meter line. He looped shots over triple blocks. And his crossing shots seemed to fall in bounds on command. After one of Delgado's roll shots landed just fair, Hildebrand turned to look at one of the four newly installed K5 screens at the upper level. When the replay confirmed the point, Hildebrand clapped in I'm-not-worthy praise.

"It was a team effort," Delgado said. "Without my team, I couldn't achieve anything."

UH opposite attacker Lauri Hakala contributed 18 kills, middle blockers Mauli'a LaBarre and Dio Dante sealed the hitting gaps, and Reft successfully passed the sizzling serves.

"It was a dogfight," said Reft, who received 62 serves with only one error. "We played great, and they played wonderfully. It was a game of heart, and both teams came out firing. I'm glad we came out on top. We were lucky."

The 49ers, who entered the series atop the MPSF, changed their strategy after Thursday night's three-game loss. Cape started at one of the middle positions, and All-America middle blocker Duncan Budinger moved to opposite attacker.

"He's never played there in his career — ever — not even in juniors," Hildebrand said.

The move beefed up the 49ers' block — in four rotations, they essentially had two middle blockers in the front row — and gave the offense another tall attacker with a powerful swing.

"He's so physical out there, we can set him quicks, we can set him Ds (on the right side behind the 3-meter line) and we can set him fast sets out of the front," 49er coach Alan Knipe said.

Last night's strategy, it appeared, was to set Budinger often. Tarr, the left-side attacker, usually receives a third of the sets. Last night, Tarr took 53 swings and Budinger had 50. Each finished with 22 kills.

Budinger said he was notified of the move just before yesterday morning's 90-minute practice.

"I didn't have much time to get used to it," said Budinger, who had practiced at opposite during the early part of training camp. "I wish I could have done a little better. The big thing is timing. I need to realize the (sets) are a little higher, and I don't need to run in as fast."

Wilton said: "They told us they had some wrinkles in mind, and that turned out to be a pretty big wrinkle. He did well enough they set him 50 times."

The Warriors countered with accurate passing, which afforded setter Brian Beckwith more options, and an active defense.

"They changed their lineup, but that's not a problem as long as we take care of the ball on our side," Beckwith said. "They came out tough and played hard. We played harder."

The Warriors benefitted from early leads in Games 1 and 4.

"We lost those games early, not late," Knipe said. "I was proud of the way the guys played, even with the ones they hit out. But if we don't go down 5-1 (in Game 4), we're still playing right now. That's a lot better feeling than (Thursday) night, when we were out of here in about 90 minutes."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.