Oh, what could have been.

Times six.

That’s how many swings No. 14 Hawaii had at ending the critical Set 3 during Sunday night’s championship of the Outrigger Resorts Volleyball Challenge.

Six swings that might have made the difference between ending the drought against No. 6 Washington that dated back to 2010 and starting the week armed with the first win over a ranked team this season.

Instead, the Huskies held off all that the Rainbow Wahine threw at them to hold on for a 25-23, 17-25, 28-26, 23-25, 15-13 victory. A crowd of 5,050 saw junior hitter Crissy Jones more than earn her Most Outstanding Player award, putting down a career-high 22 kills to help keep Washington undefeated (8-0) after 2 hours and 49 minutes.

On a night when Hawaii coach Dave Shoji talked about the courage his team had when coming back after losing both Sets 1 and 3 — both very winnable — that courage was personified by senior opposite Nikki Taylor who played through the pain in her left elbow and her right knee to finish with a career-high 29 kills.

Taylor, in on seven of the team’s 12 blocks, retweaked the elbow that kept her out of the first weekend of the season on a block in Set 3. She continued to play through it, saying afterwards, “It’s nothing new. I’m fine.”

The ending wasn’t for Hawaii, which will finish the nonconference schedule with home matches Friday and Saturday against Pepperdine (6-3). The Wahine admittedly couldn’t close out the sets when needed.

“I’m proud of what we did tonight,” said UH sophomore hitter McKenna Granato, who added 17 kills. “We didn’t give up, we kept our energy.

“We need to work on finishing it, focus on the little things.”

Those little things added up to the third loss against a Top 10 team. While it won’t affect the Ratings Percentage Index much, a win would certainly have helped Hawaii’s power rating.

“Obviously they’re a great team and it would have been nice to have this one,” Shoji said. “But we can’t dwell on it.

“As I told the team, we can’t step back and rest. We have a really good Pepperdine team coming in and we’ve got to get back to work on Tuesday. The general feeling is we played well, had our chances against a very physical team. It wasn’t from lack of effort.”

However, Hawaii again was sluggish when starting a match. Sunday night, the Wahine trailed 13-5 before taking advantage of a UW rotation that had Jones in the back row and only two Husky attackers in the front row.

Behind the serving of Clare-Marie Anderson, Hawaii closed to 14-11. Washington held, pulling ahead at 21-16. A serving run by McKenna Granato included an ace and pushed the Wahine to 21-20.

The Huskies used a 3-0 spurt to earn set point. Hawaii made them earn it, holding off two set points but not a third as Jones put down her fourth kill.

The Wahine carried the late momentum over to Set 2, the only set that wasn’t decided by two points. There was one tie at 1-1 and then Hawaii took the lead. The Huskies closed to 6-5 on another kill by Jones but could get no closer.

The Wahine won a key rally, capped by a kill by Taylor, to make it 15-10. Freshman setter Norene Iosia redirected a service overpass and another kill by Taylor pushed it to 20-13.

Freshman hitter Kirsten Sibley’s second kill gave Hawaii set point at 24-16 and, one sideout later, Sibley’s third kill evened the match at 1-1.

The Wahine were more than poised to take Set 3, with a huge lead at 24-20. It was nothing less than a huge collapse as Hawaii had six chances to put it away and couldn’t

Washington took just its second lead of the set at 27-26 and needed just one shot at ending it, with junior setter Bailey Tanner acing junior hitter Kalei Greeley for the 28-26 win.

Set 4 was a roller coaster with eight ties and four lead changes. It wasn’t looking good for Hawaii when down 21-18 but Taylor changed things with four kills to tie it at 22. Taylor’s 26th kill gave the Wahine set point and junior middle Emily Maglio put down her seventh to force the fifth.

Unlike when rallying from down 8-2 in the fifth against Arizona, Hawaii couldn’t hold on to its 7-5 lead against Washington. The Huskies used a 4-0 run to gain separation. The Wahine fought to tie it at 13 on Taylor’s last kill. UW countered with a kill by Courtney Schwan and a block of Maglio, her only hitting error of the night.

Maglio finished with 11 kills and was in on five blocks. Iosia had a double-double (53 assists-20 digs) and junior libero Savanah Kahakai added 23 digs.

Taylor and Maglio were named to the all-tournament team along with Washington’s Schwan and Tia Scambray, Lexi Thompson of Utah Valley and Mary Grace Kelly from Northern Illinois.

NO. 6 WASHINGTON DEF. NO. 13 HAWAII 25-23, 17-25, 28-26, 23-25, 15-13
HUSKIES (8-0)

RAINBOW WAHINE (5-4)

Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills plus blocks plus aces).

Service aces — Washington 8 (Julye 3 Jones 2, Scambray 2, Tanner). Hawaii 5 (Granato 2, Guinasso 2, Taylor).
Service errors — Washington 8 (Scambray 3, Bajema 2, Tanner 2, Schwan). Hawaii 6 (Kahakai 2, Taylor 2, Guinasso, Iosia).

Assists — Washington 62 (Tanner 56, Jones 4, Bajema, McPherson). Hawaii 70 (Iosia 53, Kahakai 9, Greeley 3, Taylor 2, Anderson, Maglio, Sibley).

T — 2:49. Officials — Ernest Ho, Wayne Lee. A — 5,050.