The story of this year's Hawai'i volleyball team is the absence of a happy ending.

Last night, the Warriors played well in every phase but the final score in losing to UC Irvine, 30-28, 25-30, 34-32, 31-29 in the Stan Sheriff Center.

"It sucks," said outside hitter Jake Schkud, one of two Warrior seniors. "This is my career on the line. We didn't sack up at the right time. We let it get away. I'm the first to say I messed up. I think every guy knows we did wrong. We were right there against a good team."

The outcome dropped the Warriors to 8-10 overall and 5-8 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. A victory would have moved the Warriors ahead of UC Irvine (11-11, 7-8) and into seventh place. The top eight teams qualify for the MPSF playoffs.

The Warriors have nine MPSF matches remaining, beginning with tonight's rematch.

"To make the playoffs, we have to win almost all of them," said Schkud, who buried a team-high 18 kills. "This one stings. It's a (bad) feeling."

The Warriors dominated the net, amassing 15 blocks to the Anteaters' 6.5, and found perimeter production from Schkud and freshman Joshua Walker (17 kills).

But the Warriors had difficulty containing opposite attacker Jon Steller, who boomed 29 kills, or solving the riddle of middle blocker Aaron Harrell's serves.

Harrell, who entered with 11 aces in 21 matches this season, produced seven in 25 serves last night. He mixed a jump serve with a floater.

"Usually if I do a bad toss, I'll try to bang it in," Harrell said. "In practice, it's all about reading the toss. That's what I did in the match. I knew when to swing away and when to cut it."

Harrell set the tone in Game 1, when he went to the service line with a 17-16 lead. Left-handed outside hitter Cole Reinholm hit a line shot that landed a couple of inches in fair play to make it 18-16. Then, with the Warriors playing deep, Harrell served three consecutive dying-quail aces — two in front of libero Ric Cervantes and one short-hopping Walker.

"We gave one away when they served a few short balls and we didn't react very well to it," UH coach Mike Wilton said. "That put us in a headspin for the next four or five plays."

In Game 4, the Warriors misplaced their radar. Leading 29-28, Nejc Zemljak served the potential game ball into the net.

On the next play, Walker received a set in the front left. The Anteaters planted the block in the middle, taking away Walker's preferred crossing shot. Walker tried to hit down the line, but the ball landed long.

"They had a good block up there," Walker said. "(The spike) went a little deep."

Steller's 29th kill, off a set on the right side behind the 3-meter line, ended the match after 2 hours, 33 minutes.

"I love to hit the D set," said Steller, a 6-foot-7 lefthander. "It's a fun set."

Wilton, fighting back frustration, said: "That was a very winnable match. ... Coming down the stretch in Game 4, we missed (serves and attacks). We can't do that."

Wilton also said he was unhappy with the Warriors' transition game, noting the Warriors often do not take advantage of good defensive plays.

"There are too many times we're not getting swings at balls that are dug," Wilton said. "We're shooting it over with two hands. That sends a horrible message. It sends a bad message to me. You want to try and get a swing at the ball, a good hard swing. That's the goal. To make the other team play defense."

Left-side hitter Cory Yoder added 20 kills for the Anteaters, and middle blocker Kevin Wynne had 12 kills and no errors in 17 swings. Irvine coach John Speraw made several strategic calls, pulling Reinholm, who hit .389. In Game 4, he used both of his timeouts before the halfway point.

"I think we gutted it out, and made the points happen when we needed them the most," Speraw said. "We had some great individual efforts. Everyone did a little part here and there, and the total helped us win."

Harrell added: "We usually make mistakes and get so frustrated with ourselves we wind up beating ourselves. The main trend in this match was we let loose and played our game. If we made a mistake, we didn't worry about it."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.