The rude awakening took 100 minutes.

That was the elapsed time of the University of Hawai'i volleyball team's 30-23, 30-21, 30-25 exhibition loss to British Columbia last night in the Stan Sheriff Center.

A crowd of 1,465 watched the T-Birds control the serve-and-pass phase and then the Warriors.

"It sucks to lose, for sure," UH middle blocker Dio Dante said. "We knew we had to shake some rust off. I'm glad this team came over to help us with this."

The T-Birds played crisply in their first match since Nov. 24. They are in the sixth week of a mid-season break from league competition.

The Warriors, meanwhile, reconvened Monday after taking nearly a month off for the holiday season.

"I'm not going to take anything away from those guys," UH setter Brian Beckwith said. "They played awesome. They're a really good team. I'm so stoked to have them here. But, again, after four weeks of sitting with the maple syrup and thick butter, this is our third day (of volleyball)."

The Warriors' woes could be traced to inconsistency in the serve-and-pass phase. The T-Birds scored 36 points on plays initiated by their serves; the Warriors' serves led to 16 points.

Most of all, the Warriors had difficulty passing float serves. The T-Birds lofted the floaters short and to the wings, often forcing opposite attacker Lauri Hakala or left-side hitter Eric Kalima to move up to pass.

"If Lauri has to go and take it, he's out of the play, he can't hit," UH coach Mike Wilton said. "We'd like our outside hitters to get a full run up to the ball to take a swing at it. If they have to pass a short serve, we've lost an option."

UBC coach Robert Schick said the original game plan did not call for floaters.

"It's the cycle of the game," Schick said. "Sometimes it's blocking. Sometimes it's serving. Everyone thinks you've got to have a wicked, crazy hard-spin serve. But everybody's training for that, and sometimes they're not prepared for the basic float serve."

The short serves led to errant passes, minimizing Beckwith's options.

"We put them in difficult situations, and that made our blocking easier," Schick said.

The T-Birds amassed 13 blocks, including six solo rejections, compared to the Warriors' 5.5 blocks.

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.