As well as the University of Hawai'i men's volleyball team performed last week in a five-game loss to No. 3 UCLA, it will have to be even better if it hopes to defeat No. 6 Long Beach State this week.

The teams meet at 7 tonight and tomorrow at Stan Sheriff Center. Tonight's match is the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation opener for both. One free ticket is available for each UH-system student bearing a valid university ID. (Tickets must be picked up at the Stan Sheriff Center Box Office.)

"They seem to be all in the range of 6-foot-4 to 6-7, they're all good athletes and they can hit it from outside," UH head coach Mike Wilton said of the 2-0 49ers. "I think they're way better than UCLA at this point in time."

Despite a 1-2 record, the No. 12 Warriors aren't looking too shabby themselves.

UH beat a talented if unranked Ball State team and lost well-contested matches to UCLA (2-1) and No. 4 Penn State (3-0) in last week's Outrigger Hotels Invitational.

The Warriors are still working to integrate the talents of several new and developing players, including 6-7 freshman hitter Dusan Matic of Serbia, 6-2 freshman setter Nejc Zemljak and 6-5 freshman middle blocker Keali'i Frank.

"With this team, it's going to be a learning curve kind of deal," Wilton said. "There's such a thing as getting lots of fall-practice reps, but when the bullets are live, as Coach Mouse (Davis) used to say, it's a different deal."

This week's practices were slowed by a flu bug that struck several players. Leading hitter Jim Clar is also nursing sore abdominal muscles that limited his participation in yesterday's practice.

The 49ers are led by 6-7 sophomore opposite hitter Dean Bittner and 6-7 senior outside hitter Paul Lotman, who combine for nearly 10 kills per game.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.