PROVO, Utah — Hawai'i was done in by Brigham Young's "security blanket."

That's what Hawai'i head coach Mike Wilton called BYU freshman setter Yamil Perez, who entered yesterday's match in the second game and sparked the No. 4 Cougars to a 28-30, 30-22, 30-22, 30-24 victory in front of 2,771 fans at the Smith Fieldhouse.

Perez, who has been hampered by an ankle injury and didn't practice this week, entered the match and BYU seemed to side out a little stronger and attack a little better.

"He's a nice setter," Wilton said. "He made a big difference in the match."

No. 12 Hawai'i (3-10 overall, 3-8 MPSF) took control of Game 1 with a 4-1 run that included kills from Jacob Schkud, Lauri Hakala and Jim Clar and a dump from setter Brian Beckwith to gave Hawai'i an 18-16 lead.

Later, a triple block (Hakala, Beckwith and Matt Rawson) followed by a kill from Rawson put the Hawai'i advantage at 28-23. BYU rallied to 29-28 but a Clar kill ended Game 1 with a victory for the Warriors.

"In Game 1 we put a lot of pressure on BYU with our serving," Wilton said.

"Not so much in Games 2, 3 and 4."

That's when Perez (54 assists) got the BYU offense rolling. Yosleyder Cala (26 kills, .639 hitting percentage), Ivan Perez (23 kills, .529) and Robby Stowell (19 kills, .350) took turns tormenting the Hawai'i defense.

The Warriors outblocked BYU 14.5 to 10.5 but the Cougars outdug Hawai'i by a whopping 53-30.

BYU (10-4, 6-3), which ended a four-match losing streak, hit .469 in Game 3 and .500 in Game 4.

"A couple of guys completely got away from us," Wilton said. "We gave it the old college try but we didn't execute."

After hitting .429 in the first game, the Warriors hit .061, .148 and .273 in the last three.

Clar paced Hawai'i with 17 kills and Hakala joined him in double figures with 15, but both players hit below .250. Dio Dante added six kills, five digs and five block assists.

BYU and Hawai'i meet again today at 4 p.m. Hawai'i time. The match can be heard live on ESPN 1420 AM.HAWAI'I