January went out like a lion for No. 5 Hawaii, off to one of its best starts in program history. The Rainbow Warriors hope that February will come in the same way — they take on No. 1 UCLA later this week at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Thanks to a 30-28, 25-19, 25-22 sweep of UC San Diego in Sunday’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball match, Hawaii (8-1, 3-1 MPSF) takes a five-match win streak into Friday’s match with the Bruins.

The Warriors, winners of 16 straight at home dating to last year, were resilient when it counted. And the only thing that counts in the über-tough MPSF is winning, pretty or not.

“What we learned tonight is we have to go hard every game,” said UH senior hitter Siki Zarkovic, who finished with a match-high 21 kills. “This was a learning experience.

“We started slow and had trouble stopping No. 2 (UCSD junior hitter Ian Colbert, who finished with 19 kills). We started blocking better. This is a boost going into next week.”

“I think we were not present, not as present as we needed to be,” Zarkovic’s father, Milan, the Warriors’ assistant coach, said. “San Diego played an extremely good game.

“As good as January was, February is a crucial month for us. It will be battles every night.”

Hawaii got a battle it didn’t expect Sunday from the Tritons (3-7, 0-6), needing to rally hard to pull out Set 1. With freshman phenom opposite Stijn van Tilburg, struggling early (no kills, hitting negative in Set 1), Zarkovic carried the Warriors with nine kills and no errors on 13 swings. Hawaii trailed most of the way, including being down by as many as five (15-10).

The Tritons appeared to take a 22-19 lead when Tanner Syftestad put down an overpass. But Syftestad was called for a net violation and Hawaii followed with a tremendous defensive effort — digs by Zarkovic and setter Jennings Franciskovic, and a punch by Kupono Fey — that resulted in a point. Zarkovic added another kill to tie it at 22.

It would be tied six more times, the last at 28, with Hawaii holding off one set point by UCSD and the Tritons holding off four by the Warriors.

Zarkovic put down his ninth kill and Hendrik Mol’s solo stuff of Colbert ended it.

“Winning that one was big,” Warriors coach Charlie Wade said. “It was a wake-up call for our guys and hats off to San Diego. That play, the aggressive defense with bodies flying, can be deflating for the other team and it gets the crowd into it.”

The crowd of 1,742 saw both teams play impressive defense over the 1 hour and 50 minutes, with Hawaii winning the dig battle 38-35. The Warriors’ anchor again was senior libero Kolby Kanetake, who had 15 digs in inching closer to No. 8 on the program’s career digs list; Kanetake is at 632, while Carlos Briceno is at 649.

“I thought Siki was great again, was what you expect of a senior captain,” Wade added.

Again coming up big was Hawaii’s block, which finished with a 13-6 edge. Junior middle Iain McKellar finished with a career-high seven as he continues to make the transition from opposite.

Hawaii began showing a little more balance in Set 2. Van Tilburg’s first kill gave the Warriors a 15-10 lead and Hawaii had its biggest margin at 17-10 after kills by Fey and Zarkovic.

UCSD made things interesting when it closed to 22-18, but Zarkovic and Mol teamed to stuff Colbert. The Warriors finished it out with a 3-1 run, emphatically ending it with van Tilburg’s bullet line shot.

Set 3 was tight, with eight ties, the last at 22. Two kills by Zarkovic gave Hawaii match point and the crowd only had to stand briefly for one aloha ball, that coming on a block of Alec Flowers by Mol and van Tilburg.

Van Tilburg, who came into the match averaging 4.44 kills per set, had 4 in Set 3 to finish with 6. Fey also had six kills to go with four block assists.

“Stijn showed he is a freshman,” Milan Zarkovic said. “He’s still adjusting to this level, but he is very coachable. He’s still learning.”

After hosting UCLA on Friday and Saturday, Hawaii is on the road at second-place Stanford (Feb. 12-13) and USC (Feb. 15-16). The Cardinal (7-1, 5-1) defeated the host Trojans (1-7, 1-5) on Sunday 25-20, 19-25, 25-19, 25-8.

MPSF Volleyball

Sunday
Hawaii def. UC San Diego 30-28, 25-19, 25-22
Stanford def. USC 25-20, 19-25, 25-19, 25-8

Wednesday
Cal Baptist at UC Irvine
Pepperdine at Cal State Northridge

Friday
UCLA at Hawaii, 7 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center Stanford at Long Beach State
Cal-Baptist at UC San Diego
USC at UC Irvine
UC Santa Barbara at BYU

No. 5 Hawaii def. UC San Diego, 30-28, 25-19, 25-22

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 — UC San Diego 2 (Rudenko 2). Hawaii 3 (Franciskovic, McKellar, van Tilburg). Service errors — UC San Diego 12 (Syftestad 4, Beamer 2, Schmidt 2, Stojcic 2, Colbert, Flowers). Hawaii 7 (Franciskovic 2, Mol 2, McKellar, van Tilburg, Zarkovic). Assists — UC San Diego 44 (Stojcic 33, Schmidt 3, Beamer 2, Flowers 2, Howard 2, Syftestad 2). Hawaii 40 (Franciskovic 37, Kanetake, Mol, Zarkovic). T — NA. Officials — Ron Stahl, Dan Hironaka. A — 1,742.