Brigham Young-Hawaii pushed top-ranked Cal State San Bernardino hard Friday night in an NCAA II West Regional semifinal volleyball match.

The host Coyotes pushed back even harder.

CSUSB used a 5-1 run to close out Set 4 en route to a 25-22, 25-17, 25-27, 25-20 victory over the PacWest champion Seasiders in San Bernardino, Calif. The win extended the Coyotes’ streak at Coussoulis Arena to 63 while ending the Seasiders’ winning streak at 16.

The Coyotes (29-0) will play No. 23 Sonoma State (26-6) in today’s final for a spot in the NCAA II Elite Eight. The Seawolves upset the No. 15 Tritons 3-1 in Friday’s first semifinal.

Samantha Middleborn, one of nine CSUSB seniors, had a monster match with 17 kills, hitting .593, and seven blocks.

Junior hitter Lauren Hagemeyer led BYUH (19-3) with 15 kills, while freshman Shin Ting Chen had 13 kills and 15 digs. Senior libero Losefine Pula led the Seasiders defense with 16 digs.

“We had our shots,” BYUH coach Wilfred Navalta said. “We started to play more relaxed in Game 3 and won that one. We had our shot in Game 4, too.

“San Bernardino is an excellent team, very mature, been in this position many times and had everything going for them, playing at home. We made critical mistakes and had a hard time playing out of system.”

After winning Set 3, the Seasiders looked to push it to five when they took leads of 15-12 and 16-15. The Coyotes answered with a 4-0 run to take the lead for good.

BYUH closed to within 20-19 and 22-20 but got not closer.

“They were a strong, physical team, but we knew we could compete,” Navalta said. “We had a great season, got a step farther in the regional than we did last year. Next year, our young players will have had this experience.”

Chen tops in PacWest

BYU-Hawaii freshman middle blocker Shih Ting Chen was named the conference’s player of the year.

BYUH also had three of the other top four awards. Navalta was named coach of the year, setter Ying Chun Chen the freshman of the year and Losaline Pula the co-libero of the year.

Chen and Pula were joined by junior hitter Lauren Hagemeyer on the first team. Also on the first team from Hawaii schools was Hawaii-Hilo senior middle Hillary Hurley.