UC Santa Barbara made the right plays at the right time in rallying to a 24-30, 28-30, 30-26, 30-28, 17-15 volleyball victory over Hawai'i last night in the Stan Sheriff Center.

A crowd of 1,516 was befuddled into silence when the Gauchos found the escape hatch after losing the first two games and falling behind, 25-21, in Game 3.

"I think we were out-blocked, out-hit, out-dug, out-everything, I'm sure," UCSB setter Bart Kowalski said. "They beat us in every category. But we fought for it and we pulled it out in the end."

The combination that opened the way was opposite attacker Evan Patak's tireless right arm, an efficient middle attack and the Warriors' self-inflicted mistakes.

Patak, who is 6 feet 8 and 255 pounds, boomed 32 kills in 71 attempts. Including his serves, Patak took 97 swings last night.

"I'm used to it," said Patak, whose right arm was wrapped in an ice pack after the match. "I got more than usual, but that's OK."

Patak struggled early, with the Warriors' front row getting fingerprints on nearly every one of his early shots, which reach up to 65 mph. He was blocked seven times. But Patak, as he has done his entire career, wanted to go down swinging.

"Another day at the office," he said. "You can't get frustrated. You have to turn it on. If my teammates see me getting down, they're going to get down. You can't do it."

Patak, who launched most of his hits from the right side, drew double and triple blocks. That created opportunities for middles Theo Brunner (18 kills) and David Kennedy (10 kills).

"He opens it up," Brunner said, pointing to Patak. "He makes it easy on me. And when we get going, we take the load off of him a little bit."

The Gauchos, ranked No. 4 nationally, U-turned the momentum in Game 3, when Tyson Norton was summoned to serve for Kennedy. To that point, the Gauchos had scored five points on plays initiated by their serves in Game 3.

Norton served four points in a row to give the Gauchos a 27-25 lead. The Gauchos scored nine of the final 10 points in Game 3.

The Gauchos also served three times for the win in Game 4. The Warriors assisted in their own destruction, missing three of their final four serves.

"We really gave it away in Game 4," UH coach Mike Wilton said. "You can't do that. You cannot. That's us right now. We're getting better. We're going to be good. But we can't make mistakes like that."

The score was tied at 15 in the decisive fifth game. But Patak slammed a kill that ricocheted off a double block, and Brunner rejected UH middle Dio Dante for aloha ball.

"It wasn't pretty," Brunner said. "We kept believing. Some plays went our way. We got away with it."

The outcome nullified a gritty effort by Jake Schkud, who amassed a career-high 11 kills, and left-side hitter Lauri Hakala, who played despite an abdominal strain.

Hakala finished with 14 kills, 10 digs and assisted on nine of the Warriors' season-high 25 blocks. He also frustrated the Gauchos with a mix of jump serves and jump roll shots.

But during the match, Hakala aggravated the abdominal strain. Following the match, he was fitted for an ice pack.

"The abdomen doesn't make you play good or bad," Hakala said. "It's what you make out of it. If you're having problems, you've got to find other ways to make things work."

As for the Warriors' fifth loss in a row, Hakala said, "It really sucks. We played a good game. It's probably the best we've played with this team. We lost every game by a tiny bit. We should have beat them in three. But should've, would've, could've. They're a good team. Give them that."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.