Ultimately playing keepaway with the lead better than it played giveaway, 16th-ranked Hawai'i swept Notre Dame, 30-27, 30-26, 30-27, last night. A volleyball crowd of 3,658 watched, and often wondered, at Stan Sheriff Center.

The Rainbow Wahine (14-5) and Fighting Irish (12-6) play again tonight at 6. It will be Hawai'i's seventh match in 12 nights and the brutal schedule is taking an efficiency toll. Last night's non-conference match was mostly a battle of attrition, with the Rainbows unable to pull away from a Notre Dame team dominated by freshmen.

The 'Bows hit nearly .400 through the first two games and still had to hang on against the Irish, who kept coming with different looks ... and their own mistakes. Notre Dame, which has been to the past 14 NCAA tournaments and won 10 Big East championships, dropped out of the rankings two weeks into this season. The Irish played at least five freshmen in every game.

The final game was a shambles, with both teams hitting negative numbers almost until the end. In shades of Friday's loss at New Mexico State — which ended the 'Bows' conference winning streak at an NCAA-record 132 — Notre Dame went on a 14-5 tear to go ahead 27-24.

Hawai'i found a "sense of urgency," according to junior Raeceen Woolford, who had 15 digs. UH scored the final six points, with Jamie Houston burying three of her match-high 18 kills, Kari Gregory serving two aces and the Irish throwing in a ballhandling violation and a couple bad passes.

"There were a lot of unforced errors, really both sides," Notre Dame coach Debbie Brown said. "Game 3, no person could be happy with either side of the net. It was pretty ugly volleyball. So, there's lots to improve on for sure."

Hawai'i should have dominated Game 1, but couldn't. The Irish never slowed the UH offense, which was hitting better than .500 late into the game. Only the 'Bows kept giving points back, handing out 10 on an ugly assortment of mangled serves, bad ballhandling and hitting errors.

"I'm frustrated because we continue to hurt ourselves," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "It's the little things we don't convert. We make a silly error or silly decision. We need to be better at it or we're not going to realize a lot of our goals."

UH's generosity kept the Irish close. Hawai'i didn't lead by more than three until Woolford served it to a 27-22 advantage and the 'Bows held on.

UH took control early in Game 2, going up 12-6 when Houston blasted a kill from the back row that knocked Adrianna Stasiuk over. Again, the 'Bows lost focus but held on despite giving the Irish nine points.

"It was pretty evident we had some tired legs out there," Shoji said. "We had a quick start, we were playing well and kind of hit the wall."

His players insist they are fit enough to get through this rare relentless stretch, and even admitted to "conserving" some energy last night for tonight. The light at the end of this tiring tunnel is two days off.

Six down and one to go. What can Hawai'i do to finish with a flourish or, as Shoji put it, "gather up some energy for a couple of hours?"

"I need to work on mental toughness and I think that goes along with a lot of other people," Woolford said. "It starts with the pass. We need to take care of our personal roles on the team and when we do that collectively we have success."

Jessica Keefe, who hurt her left knee Wednesday at Louisiana Tech, joined Tara Hittle on the bench last night. An announcement could be made on Keefe's future today, according to UH. She is not expected to play any time soon, and possibly not the rest of the season.

Hittle (injured leg and ankle) is out for the season, as is Nickie Thomas, who had knee surgery Friday. All three were starters.

"The team survives, someone else steps into that spot," Shoji said. "But for Jessica, Nickie and Tara, they worked hard get to a certain point in their career and it was taken away from them. It's hard for them and I feel really bad for them."

NOTE

Hawai'i dropped five slots, to No. 16, in yesterday's CSTV/AVCA Division Top 25 Coaches Poll. It is the lowest UH has been ranked since it finished the 1997 season at No. 25.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.