The University of Hawai'i volleyball team was reminded of a fundamental lesson last night: A breakdown in fundamentals cannot lead to a happy ending.

The Warriors' inconsistent passing resulted in a 30-28, 30-18, 30-28 loss to top-ranked Pepperdine in the Stan Sheriff Center.

"When we pass well, we beat everybody," UH co-captain Lauri Hakala said. "When we don't pass well, we lose to everybody."

That was evident, particularly in Game 2, as the Warriors suffered their 12th defeat in 15 matches this season. They are 3-10 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, and likely would need to win eight of their final nine league matches to qualify for the eight-team playoffs.

The Waves, by winning their 12th in a row, improved to 15-1 and 12-1.

"It's such a team sport," UH setter Brian Beckwith said. "In volleyball, you rely so much on your teammates. It requires an overall effort to be successful. That was one of the things tonight. Everything — from passing to serving to swinging to setting to blocking — it wasn't there. We need to be clicking to beat the No. 1 team."

Following a second loss to Brigham Young two weeks ago, the Warriors began plotting a switch in schemes in preparation for last night's match. In a formula to rate passing efficiency, the Warriors had a very good 2.4 score (on a 3.0 scale) against BYU. But they struggled with their hitting.

UH coach Mike Wilton decided to move Lauri Hakala from left-side hitter, where he had played since the second week of the season, to opposite, where he was All-American last season. Jim "Jimbo" Clar moved from opposite to the left side.

In UH's offense, the opposite attacker hits on the right side in five of six rotations. That means more sets for Hakala, but a reduced role as a passer.

Hakala slammed a match-high 18 kills, including five consecutive points in Game 3, but his absence as a primary passer was noticeable.

"Our ball control went right out the window," Wilton said.

In particular, the Warriors had difficulty passing the Waves' float serves.

Unlike jump serves, floaters are placed high and well in front of the passers. The "No. 1 thing," Wilton wrote on the board, "is get your forehead to the ball on the float serves."

Translation: The passer's hands must be in a hold-up victim's position, receiving the float serve at forehead-high level.

"We needed to take it with our hands," Wilton said. "But, oh, no, we were passing it with our forearms. Boom-boom. That didn't work so good. I think when we started to take those serves with our hands later, that was helpful."

In contrast, the Waves were in system the entire match. They took advantage of 6-foot-8 setter Jonathan Winder, parlaying difficult serves into high passes.

"We were able to pop up the really tough ones and pass well the others," said Winder, who has nearly healed from a knee injury suffered in January. "The high passes helped me out. I didn't have to dive around the court."

Winder, in turn, was able to spread out the sets in an offense that used to heavily favor opposite attacker Paul Carroll, who finished with a team-high 14 kills.

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.