Robyn Ah Mow crumpled up the piece of paper in her hand documenting the statistical details of Hawaii’s four-set victory over USC on Friday.

“You hit .429 today. That means nothing tomorrow. You’re not going to do that again,” the Rainbow Wahine coach said, speaking to reporters.

Then quickly she turned to the freshman sitting next to her.

“Sorry.”

Everyone laughed, but the message was clear.

Ah Mow wants Annika De Goede — author of the team-high 11 kills that factored into that gaudy percentage — to gain confidence steadily. Same for her fellow neophyte, middle Anna Kiraly. Same for the entire team.

On Saturday, as predicted by her coach, De Goede did not hit .429. And there would have been more laughter postmatch if she’d maintained the .500 she was at midway through Saturday’s match, when the Wahine appeared on their way to another victory over USC in as many nights but let it slip away. This time they lost in four sets.

De Goede wasn’t bad Saturday. She just wasn’t anywhere near as good as on Friday. Few of the UH players were, especially after taking a big lead in the third set.

Hawaii was up 20-11 in the third. All seemed well for the home team at the Stan Sheriff Center. Finishing up the sweep against USC at the SimpliFi Arena wouldn’t be simple, but UH was in command and it was there for the taking.

But then a few errors by the Wahine, including the freshmen, and a lot of scrappy play from the Women of Troy flipped the script and USC won the third set. That gave it all the momentum in the world and two sets to win one, which it did.

On Friday, the Wahine managed to spread the workload, and for the first time this season Brooke Van Sickle was not the kill leader, it was De Goede.

De Goede and Kiraly combined for 19 of UH’s 45 kills Friday, many coming at key junctures. Another freshman, Mia Johnson, came on strong off the bench with all five of her kills in the fourth set, including the match-winner.

“On the road, they didn’t really get a chance,” Ah Mow said of starting De Goede and Kiraly. “We saw something in practice and felt they were ready to play.”

Kiraly was steady enough in the middle on Friday that senior Skyler Williams — who started four of UH’s first six matches — never got in on Friday.

Would she on Saturday?

“You never know,” Ah Mow said Friday. “But why change stuff that’s going well?”

Obviously, it didn’t go as well Saturday, and Williams was called on briefly, twice. Her kill near the end of the fourth set and an ace by Martyna Leoniak — who had not played at all to that point — got Hawaii to one point from deuce.

It was fitting that a USC block ended it, since the Women of Troy had 13 on this night compared to eight by the Women of Manoa.

As Ah Mow knew, USC would surely make adjustments overnight to try to shut down or at least slow down the newcomers. Secret weapons are no longer secret once you unleash them.

So on Saturday, Van Sickle was the workhorse again, taking 57 swings while USC targeted their serves at her. She led UH in kills again with 12, but also had eight errors hitting into a big block.

Amber Igiede took some of the pressure off with 11 kills on 20 attempts. She had her moments at the net, but USC had more, and its 13 team blocks to eight by the Wahine was a big factor in the outcome.

The Wahine are clearly a team in transition and consistency is definitely a work in progress; this was known even before their 3-5 preconference record, and the brutally bad second set Friday (“lack of focus and a bunch of errors,” Ah Mow said).

On the first night they recovered from the bad second set. Not on Saturday.

The Women of Troy are now 4-4. Sometimes over the weekend it was hard to believe that these programs have combined for 10 national championships — and when they played in an NCAA Tournament round of 16 match here in 2011 many considered it a crime that they were on the same side of the bracket, USC’s five-set win was the real national championship match.

That doesn’t matter to these teams now, as they work to find themselves headed into league competition.

The Wahine are young and hungry. Just ask the player from Hungary, Kiraly: “Tonight, both of us, added a little bit more flavor and we have to make a great dish,” Kiraly said on Friday.

The best chefs are not just talented and skilled, they are consistent. And the best restaurant kitchens are like the best sports teams — they’re the ones with chemistry and trust developed through many stressful hours of working together, and consistent division of the workload.