No. 2 Long Beach State holds off No. 1 Hawaii

Long Beach State’s Sotiris Siapanis hammered the final kill off of a Hawaii block to give the second-ranked Beach a 25-20, 20-25, 25-23, 24-26, 15-13 win over the Rainbow Warriors tonight at Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif.

Keoni Thiim had a match-high 20 kills and freshman Louis Sakanoko came off the bench to start the second set and finished with a career-high 19 kills, nine digs and three blocks for Hawaii (17-3, 0-2 Big West), which forced a fifth set despite finishing with 32 hitting errors and 26 service errors.

Siapanis had 17 kills to lead Long Beach State (18-1, 4-0), which extended its home winning streak to 11 over Hawaii despite finishing with 22 fewer kills.

Senior Alaka’i Todd added 16 kills and Hawaii kept itself in the game with 52 digs. Freshman setter Tread Rosenthal led the way with a career-high 15 digs and had 57 assists.

Hawaii was down 24-23 and facing match point in the fourth set when it rattled off the final three points to go to a fifth.

LBSU had match point at 14-11 after Simon Torwie’s solo block on Kurt Nusterer. Sakanoko put down a kill and a hitting error by the Beach made it 14-13 before Siapanis’ ball went off the block and down behind the back line to end it.

Hawaii was outblocked 20.5 to 8.5 and hit .248 to the Beach’s .279.

The Rainbow Warriors will return home for their final homestand of the regular season beginning with Cal State Northridge Friday.