HONOLULU — After the proud Hawaii women’s volleyball program suffered consecutive home conference defeats for the first time since 1993, head coach Robyn Ah Mow called for an attitude adjustment.

“I’m pretty sure the fans could see. There’s just like, nothing,” a cross Ah Mow said of her players’ energy after they were swept by Big West leader UC Santa Barbara in both Saturday night’s match and the season series with the Gauchos. “There’s no connection between players, there’s no energy. No life.”

UCSB’s 25-17, 29-27, 28-26 dispatching of the Rainbow Wahine in front of 6,316 capped a brutal weekend at the Stan Sheriff Center as UH saw regular-season Big West championship hopes slip away. An advantageous bye in the upcoming conference tournament might’ve fallen by the wayside, too; UH (17-8, 10-4 BWC) is two games out of a top-two finish with four games to play.

The inaugural tournament Nov. 22, 24 and 25 at Long Beach State has taken on outsized importance for the Rainbow Wahine, who are no longer an NCAA Tournament at-large contender. They will need to take the tournament title for the Big West’s automatic berth to keep their streak of 29 straight NCAAs alive.

Coming off of a five-set stunner to Cal Poly on Friday night, Ah Mow didn’t like what she saw from her starting lineup as UCSB (23-3, 13-1) called for a blitz in Set 1.

“If you want to be here, stay here. If not, it is what it is,” Ah Mow said. “We can’t have people like, just no energy, that’s it. Bottom line. That first set, I don’t even know, it was like high school volleyball. That’s the same six we were going with since we lost to Santa Barbara (on the road Oct. 13).”

Amber Igiede, Kennedi Evans, Riley Wagoner, Paula Guersching, Caylen Alexander and Kate Lang were the starters, plus libero Tayli Ikenaga.

UCSB, behind hitters Briana McKnight (14 kills) and Michelle Ohwobete (nine) proved clutch in extra points in the last two sets, including in the third when UH improbably rallied from down 22-14. McKnight ended it with her third ace.

Evans, one of six UH seniors, led the team with 10 kills while Igiede had nine.

“I think that if we go out, we have to go out swinging,” Evans said. “The tournament’s still ahead, there’s still two weekends left of games and we gotta focus on those.”

UH got a boost off the bench in Set 2 with freshman Tali Hakas, who tried to pump up her teammates between points with her infectious energy.

“I want to be better for them so they can be better,” said Hakas, who had seven kills and eight digs. “At the end it’s a team sport so we have to be there for each other. It doesn’t matter, the score.”

UH was outblocked 9-3 by the conference’s top team in that category. UH was held to .139 hitting to UCSB’s .202, mostly due to twice as many attack errors by the Wahine (26 to 13), who also committed 11 service errors.

The Wahine head out for their last regular-season road trip to UC Irvine (8-17, 6-8) and Cal State Fullerton (1-22, 0-14) looking for season sweeps against both on Friday and Saturday. UH enters the week tied for third with Cal Poly.

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.