Nearly an hour prior to Friday’s scheduled practice, the majority of the 19 members of the Hawaii men’s volleyball team already were in Gym I. The desire to keep getting better doesn’t take a day off.

The top-ranked Rainbow Warriors (9-0) had nine matches between Jan. 3 and 21, including four road contests in a five-day span during a trip to Illinois and Tennessee. The rest of January has been spent catching up on classes — Hawaii missed the first eight days of school — with a break against the alumni on Jan. 24.

“The bye week has been extremely valuable,” Warriors senior hitter Colton Cowell said. “We’ve been fine-tuning our offense, trying to come up with new ways of being successful with the attackers we have.

“It is a little bit like fall where we’ve been able to focus on ourselves, how good we can become. It’s good that we’re able to get back, be productive in the gym but also in the classroom. I’m looking forward to our Outrigger Invitational and the talented teams coming into our gym that are going to put up a really good fight.”

Hawaii next is in the Stan Sheriff Center for the 26th Outrigger Hotels &Resorts Invitational from Thursday through Saturday. In the field are Queens (4-4) from Conference Carolinas, Mountain Pacific Sports Federation member and 13th-ranked Concordia-Irvine (5-3) and No. 5 UC Irvine (4-3), a Big West rival in for a nonconference match.

The Warriors continue to be a work in progress, according to coach Charlie Wade.

“We’re still having some competitive battles with multiple guys who can contribute at multiple positions,” he said. “We have nine matches in the books and that puts us ahead of most teams.

“Nine matches in, you learn a fair amount about who you are. Being able to come back, spend some time getting better is very valuable.”

“It’s also a nice chance to breathe after such a crazy road trip,” Hawaii senior hitter James Anastassiades said. “It gives you an opportunity to look back on the matches, think what you could have done better.

“The bye week lets you push yourself a little harder in the weight room. You can always find some way to improve physically and mentally. Mentally, you have the time to really think about what you can improve on instead of stressing on what game’s next.”

For freshman middle Dimitrios Mouchlias, the list is long for what the Greek national would like to improve.

“There’s so many things,” he said. “But fortunately I have these guys to help me, especially the seniors Colton, Rado (opposite Parapunov), James and (middle Patrick) Gasman.

“This time has been good. It’s been important to bond more as a team. We had the opportunity to work on what we saw from some of the games that we were behind in. It’s a period we can concentrate on some things and school is certainly one of them.”

Mouchlias said he’s particularly working on his serve, which proved to be a valuable weapon on the road. He had a combined six aces with just two errors in the matches at Loyola and King, including one each in the latter parts of Sets 2 and 3 against the Ramblers that helped the Warriors put out a four-set victory.

“This week has been so competitive in practice,” Anastassiades said. “Everyone is getting after it, in practice and in the weight room. Everyone keeps improving.

“It’s been good to focus on yourself instead of the opponent. We’ll do that next week.”