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All-American opposite hitter Ben Patch returned to the starting lineup for BYU's men's volleyball team on Thursday night, but the second-seeded Cougars could never sustain any rhythm and fell 3-0 to No. 3 seed Hawaii in an MPSF semifinal match at Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif.
The scores were 25-22, 25-23 and 25-22 as Hawaii dominated the match from start to finish after being swept twice on back-to-back nights by BYU in regular-season matches in Provo.
The Warriors (26-4) will meet the winner of the late Long Beach State-UC Irvine match in the finals on Saturday, while BYU (24-4) will head back to Provo and wait until Sunday to find out whether it will get an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament next month.
Six teams are invited to the national championship tournament — four conference tournament winners and two at-large teams.
Thursday, Hawaii hit an incredible .429 to get the sweep, despite BYU's .388 hitting.
It was only the fourth time in 59 matches under coach Shawn Olmstead that BYU has been swept.
Kupono Fey hit .464 and had 16 kills to lead Hawaii, while Jake Langlois had 15 kills and Patch 14 for BYU. Brenden Sander added 11 kills.
Patch started instead of Tim Dobbert, who led BYU to a 3-0 win over Stanford last Saturday in the quarterfinals but did not register a kill on Thursday in limited time on the court.
Langlois and Patch had four kills apiece in the first set, but the Cougars dropped it 25-22 as Hawaii hit .467 and made just two hitting errors.
BYU scored three straight points to take a 23-22 lead in the second set, but Hawaii blocked the final two BYU attacks to win it 25-23 and take a 2-0 lead in the match, quieting the pro-BYU crowd on the campus of Long Beach State.
The Cougars found their rhythm and took an 18-15 lead in the third set, but Hawaii scored four of the next five points to knot it at 19 apiece. BYU took a 20-19 lead, but the Warriors rattled off three straight points and went on to the upset win.