In the aftermath of last night's 31-29, 30-19, 30-24 loss to Brigham Young, the Hawai'i volleyball team is on the brink of being mathematically eliminated from postseason contention for the first time since 1993.

By losing their 2008 home finale, the Warriors dropped to 7-13 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

The Warriors, who are in ninth place, will not qualify for the eight-team MPSF playoffs if UC Irvine (9-10) defeats UC Santa Barbara tonight.

The Warriors' only chance is if they sweep road matches against Pepperdine this coming week, and UC Irvine loses its final three regular-season matches. The Warriors own the tie-breaking advantage over the Anteaters, who are tied for seventh with Southern California. USC owns the tie-breaker over UH.

"We have two more matches to prove something — maybe not to anyone else in the country, but at least to ourselves," UH setter Sean Carney said.

It was the final regular-season home match for outside hitter Jake Schkud, the Warriors' lone senior.

"The biggest thing is I feel bad we didn't win it for Jake," Carney said. "I really wanted to win for him. I felt bad we couldn't do that."

UH left-side hitter Joshua Walker said: "That's definitely the most disappointing thing. I'm so disappointed because of that. We have only one senior and we wanted to play hard for him. We couldn't come through. We're not forgetting about Jake, that's for sure. He's a great teammate."

But Schkud, who had eight kills against seven errors in 30 swings, said: "I think it comes down to myself. I didn't give myself a good sendoff. Nothing against them. They played really well, and I didn't."

To be sure, the Warriors, who have struggled with their starts, had their moments in Game 1. Carney served five points in a row to give the Warriors a 21-16 cushion. And despite serving for game point, at 29-28, it was apparent the Warriors' hopes were built on sand.

BYU libero Joel Silva and outside hitter Ivan Perez were able take the Warriors' best shots, often making one-handed digs or pancake saves.

"We didn't give it away," Carney said. "They made some remarkable plays. There were a couple of plays that were ridiculous digs."

The BYU block consistently tipped UH spikes.

"(The BYU middles) hit it high enough for us to pick it up," said Silva, who had 15 digs and passed 15 serves without an error. "That's the key for us to dig the ball. We try to play as hard as we can on defense. It's a good skill for our team."

BYU middle blocker Trent Sorenson's slam tied the score at 29 in Game 1.

UH outside hitter Nemanja Komar hit a pipe set long, giving the Cougars a 30-29 lead. Middle blocker Russell Holmes' kill finished off Game 1 — and, as it turned out, the Warriors' momentum.

The Warriors' play dissolved into chaos after that. On their second rotation of Game 2, the Warriors were penalized for being out of turn when middle blocker Keali'i Franks served instead of Steven Grgas.

"We got rattled a little bit with the lineup," Walker said.

That might have been the pulled string that unraveled the Warriors. They had difficulty serving the Cougars out of system.

They also could not accurately pass floaters or jump serves. Carney often had to try to set on the run. Poor passing led to out-of-position setting that led to a recurring theme. The Warriors entered the two-match series last in the MPSF in hitting percentage.

Last night, the Warriors hit .102. The three outside attackers each hit under .100.

"We couldn't get any runs going," Walker said. "And they kept getting runs on us."

Walker's 10 kills were negated by 10 attack errors. Schkud was twice sent to the sidelines. Komar lasted two games before being replaced by Brennon Dyer.

"They came out and they capitalized on our errors," Schkud said. "We had a little (lineup) mishap in the beginning (of Game 2) and we couldn't bounce back from it. That's our own fault. It's not the coaches' fault. We're the guys on the court. We're the ones who messed up. It is what it is."

Carney said: "I don't think anybody on the court played their best game, including myself. When you don't have anybody go off, it's hard to play against a team like BYU."

The Warriors will rest today and tomorrow before resuming practice for the Pepperdine series.

Visit Tsai's blog at www.warriorbeat.honadvblogs.com.