Thirty minutes after last night's disheartening loss to UCLA, with the Stan Sheriff Center and their volleyball dreams nearly empty, Hawai'i's José José Delgado and Lauri Hakala embraced, thanking each other for fighting the good fight this season.

"Hopefully, it's not over," said Delgado, tears staining his cheeks. "We can't control the situation. All I know is right now ... it hurts. I can't explain how much it hurts."

To the disbelief of 5,633 fans, including Gov. Linda Lingle, UCLA surged to an 18-30, 30-28, 30-22, 30-24 victory in the quarterfinals of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

The outcome ended the Warriors' 19-match winning streak, and put their immediate future at the mercy of the selection committee for the NCAA's final four. The Warriors finished second in the MPSF, the nation's best conference, with four more regular-season victories than third place Pepperdine.

UC Irvine, the No. 1 seed and host of the MPSF semifinals and championship match, is all but assured an NCAA berth. If another team wins the MPSF playoffs to earn the accompanying automatic berth in the final four, the Anteaters would receive the at-large berth. If the Anteaters win the title . . .

". . . We've got a real good shot (for the at-large berth)," UH coach Mike Wilton said. "Last year UCLA was 18-4 (in the regular season) and second, and lost in four to Northridge (in the MPSF) quarterfinals. It seemed to me they were at the final four. If Irvine wins it, then we have a really good case."

With his team's season on life support, UH setter Brian Beckwith said: "It doesn't feel like we're alive. Whatever happens, happens. I wish we could control our own destiny, but that's not the case right now."

After Game 1, it appeared the Warriors would settle the debate on the court. The Warriors controlled the serve-and-pass phase — they scored 14 points on their serves in Game 1; the Bruins had three — and UCLA's top attacker, opposite hitter Steve Klosterman, had zero kills and five errors on seven swings.

"That's the worst I've seen Klosterman play, in the first game," Scates said.

In the three minutes between Games 1 and 2, Scates made decisions that turned the match. Scates replaced freshman Matt Wade at setter with senior Dennis Gonzalez, then ordered Gonzalez to selectively feed Klosterman until his accuracy improved. Scates also told middle blocker David Russell not to bite on fakes to UH middle blocker Dio Dante.

With Gonzalez at the controls, distributing sets to all points, and the Bruins planting blocks at the corners, the Warriors' offense began to erode.

The Warriors also self-destructed with eight service errors in Game 2. After that, they began to serve tentatively, allowing the Bruins' new three-passer system to connect with Gonzalez.The Bruins had used a two-passer system until last month, when they lost consecutive matches to the Warriors in Hawai'i. Confident that Klosterman's surgically repaired right arm would allow him to play opposite full time, Scates moved Damien Scott from opposite to the left side, making him the third passer.

But there was one glitch to the plan. Scott, a former football player, contracted food poisoning Thursday, and missed Friday's practice. He recovered enough to start last night, although he felt "awkward" in Game 1.

"(The Warriors) are a great team, and they had the home advantage, and they're not going to back down," Scott said. "We had to win that second game after they crushed us in that first one."

When the Warriors struggled with their serves and passes, their confidence soon slumped. Dante was replaced twice. Matt Carere, the floor captain, struggled with his passes, and was benched. Later, Delgado was benched.

"It just took a drastic turn for us," UH libero Alfee Reft said. "We didn't serve and pass as well as we needed to. It's no mystery why we lost. We live and die with serving and passing, and unfortunately we didn't bring our A game."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.