HONOLULU — The time for tune-ups is almost through.

The No. 3 Hawaii men’s volleyball team withstood an uneven start to sweep visiting Sacred Heart, 25-17, 25-13, 25-17, and win its 12^th straight match in front of 3,834 (5,160 tickets issued) at the Stan Sheriff Center on Friday night.

After a rematch with the Pioneers of Fairfield, Conn., on Sunday evening, the Rainbow Warriors (13-1) host the stacked Outrigger Volleyball Invitational next week, followed by a road trip to rival Long Beach State to kick off Big West play.

“We’re at that time, they’re kind of champing at the bit to get in and start playing at a higher level,” coach Charlie Wade said after his team hit .345 and held SHU to negative-.014, in large part due to a strong blocking effort led by middle Guilherme Voss.

Focus was a potential issue with UH more or less on autopilot for last week’s two-match sweep of second-year program Missouri S&T and a first-time opponent in Sacred Heart (6-10) in town as this week's entree.

“Sacred Heart’s a decent team,” Wade said. “They play a little different style than what we see every day in the practice gym, but they jump and hit. It’s not like you’re going to score points by just showing up. They forced us to get some rallies and have to play. If the block wasn’t well formed, they would score.”

UH notched just seven kills in the first set, but found other ways to rack up points, even on an off night for veteran hitter Spyros Chakas, who had four kills against six attack errors in playing two of the three sets.

Opposite Alaka‘i Todd put down 10 kills, and Voss and Chaz Galloway had five.

Voss, who is counting down the home matches remaining in his five-year UH career, said the effort was there. He was in on six blocks, including three solo stuffs.

“We’re really ramping it up in our own practice gym,” Voss said. “People are really excited for the weeks that are going to be coming up. So, it’s very nice to see all the energy.”

Keoni Thiim registered a 78 mph serve in the second set, a figure that caused the UH bench to do a double take.

“That’s the fastest we’ve seen from him,” Wade said. “Seventy-eight’s a big number.”

Carlos Santa Cruz led the Pioneers with 10 kills on 22 swings (.318). The rest of the team had 11 kills against 19 errors.

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