The Hawai'i volleyball team lost its focus and, in the end, lost a five-game match to host Stanford last night in the Burnham Pavilion.

The scores were 26-30, 30-26, 30-25, 28-30, 16-14.

Stanford outside hitter Matt Ceran slammed a kill to break a 14-all tie in Game 5, and Garrett Werner blocked UH's Jim Clar for aloha point, improving the Cardinal to 11-6 overall and 7-6 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

The Warriors fell to 5-8 and 5-6.

The rematch is tonight.

"We can't make the same mistakes," UH coach Mike Wilton said.

The Warriors dominated the first game and the first half of Game 2. But then they unraveled because of a flurry of service errors. During one stretch, they missed five consecutive serves. The gave away eight points on service errors in Game 2.

"We missed way too many serves," Wilton said. "Not only does it hurt the confidence of the server, it hurts the confidence of the team. Missing a serve is never a good thing. It's the worst thing you can do."

Clar, a junior left-side hitter, buried a career-high 29 kills and hit .434. But he missed six serves, and had no aces.

"Jimbo did some very nice things," Wilton said. "But there were times he had trouble serving the ball in."

UH's goal is to keep in play at least 88 percent of its serves. At one point, their serving accuracy was at 77 percent.

"Which is really bad," Wilton said. "That's going to be the challenge for (the rematch). We'll see if we can serve the ball in more."

The Warriors also would like to see more of a balanced attack in the middle. Steve Grgas, who follows setter Sean Carney in the rotation, hammered nine kills in 17 swings and hit .539. But the other middle, Keali'i Frank, received only one set in the first three games.

"I thought we passed well early in the match," Wilton said. "We set Grgas, but not Keali'i."

In an attempt to improve the quick attack, the Warriors substituted Matt Rawson for Frank in Game 3. Rawson received eight sets, although he converted only one for a kill.

"Keali'i didn't do anything to warrant being taken out," Wilton said. "We said, 'Let's get Matt in there. He's a little better blocker.' "

Still, the Warriors managed to force a decisive fifth game. The score was tied at 28 in Game 4 when Rawson sizzled a jump serve that Punahou graduate Spencer McLachlin could not pass.

On the next play, Ceran hit wide at game point.

"It was tough," Wilton said. "We played some of our best volleyball in Game 1 and the first part of Game 2. And we came back in Game 4."

Joshua Walker, a freshman outside hitter, added 15 kills for the Warriors.

Co-captain Jake Schkud, only one of two Warrior seniors, had eight kills.

Evan Romero led the Cardinal with 29 kills.

Ceran finished with 21 kills.

McLachlin, a freshman, had 19 kills and and seven digs.

Kawika Shoji, the son of Rainbow Wahine volleyball coach Dave Shoji, had 70 assists and 15 digs.

UH MEN'S VOLLEYBALL REMAINING SCHEDULE

FEBRUARY

28—at Stanford.

MARCH

5—LOYOLA-CHICAGO. 7—LOYOLA-CHICAGO. 14—UC IRVINE. 15—UC IRVINE. 21—at USC. 22—at USC. 25—at Cal State Northridge. 26—at Cal State Northridge.

APRIL

3—BRIGHAM YOUNG. 4—BRIGHAM YOUNG. 11—at Pepperdine. 12—at Pepperdine. 16—at MPSF Play-In. 19—at MPSF First Round. 24—at MPSF Semi-Finals. 26—at MPSF Championship.

MAY

1—at NCAA Semi-Finals. 3—at NCAA Championship.

HOME GAMES IN CAPS.