Fueled by an energy-efficiency plan, Hawai'i powered its way to a historic 30-25, 30-23, 30-23 volleyball victory over UC Santa Barbara last night.

A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 1,260 saw the Warriors win the 500th match in the program's 50-year history. They are 500-276.

In ending a five-match losing streak, the Warriors improved to 4-11 overall and 3-9 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. They also vaulted past the Gauchos (5-12, 3-11) into 10th place in the 12-team MPSF. The top eight teams qualify for the MPSF playoffs.

The Warriors were admittedly dejected — OK, irked — after losing Thursday's match between the teams.

"I was so mad I could barely sleep," left-side hitter Joshua Walker said. "I had to get to class and focus. A lot of us came in at 3 (yesterday) to work on our serves. We had a little break, and then came back at 5 to focus again."

Opposite attacker Steven Grgas said: "That was the key for all of us: to focus. I came (into the arena) to eat my little lunch in the afternoon. I sat by myself for an hour. I kept thinking about putting my energy into focusing."

After completing pre-match warmups, the Warriors retreated to their locker room.

"It was crickets," libero Ric Cervantes said. "Nobody was talking. We were (irked) about the last match."

Two significant things happened when the match started. The UH reserves huddled, and then began jumping simultaneously in support of their on-court teammates. "They energized us," Cervantes said. "They gave us a boost."

Then the Warriors' three pin hitters — Walker, left-side hitter Sean Carney and Grgas — decided to, in Grgas' words, "even out their energy."

Walker and Carney, in particularly, are asked to supplement their hitting by passing and playing defense. Carney, a converted setter, often is the second-ball steersman when setter Nejc Zemljak makes a dig.

By exerting so much energy making plays, they often are leg-weary when it is time to serve. After the Warriors missed 22 serves in Thursday's match, head coach Mike Wilton gave the OK for Carney, Walker and Grgas to launch float serves on an as-needed basis.

"The biggest thing is being tired and going back to serve," Carney said. "It's difficult stuff. Coach told me, 'If you need to float a serve to get your energy back, that's fine. Then you can go back to jump-serving.' I didn't try to do my jump serve every time. Sometimes my legs didn't have it."

The strategy worked. The Warriors missed only five of 88 serves last night; the Gauchos missed 11 of 73.

The Warriors scored on 60 percent (12 of 20) of Carney's serves. The goal is 35 percent.

The Warriors scored on eight of Walker's 16 serves.

"We didn't need to be aggressive on our serves," Walker said. "We needed to keep them in. That's why I decided to float, and keep them in."

The Warriors' serves put the pressure on the Gauchos, who relied heavily on left-side hitter Jeff Menzel. Menzel's match-high 21 kills were offset by 12 attack errors. He was blocked seven times.

UH's defense, led by Cervantes' 11 digs, allowed Zemljak to feed the outside. Walker slammed 17 kills; Carney and Grgas each had 10.

"Obviously (Thursday) night we were crushed," Carney said. "We were disappointed in how we played. Everyone took it pretty badly, including myself. We were fortunate to have another opportunity to come and play against (the Gauchos) again.

"This time, we were energized but more focused," Carney added. "We didn't have excess energy that sometimes we have. We were completely focused in taking care of business."

Grgas said: "Everybody was happy to win in three. We get to go home a little early. We came together as a team. I was really proud of us."

Visit Tsai's blog at http://warriorbeat.honadvblogs.com.