Hawaii understood the assignment on Sunday.

The Rainbow Wahine entered their match with UC San Diego aiming, as always, to establish their middle attack.

They also arrived at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center looking to stay sharp on the fundamentals that have kept them among the Big West’s blocking leaders for much of the season.

By putting a heavy check in both boxes, the Rainbow Wahine took care of business in a 25-14, 25-21, 25-20 sweep of the Tritons and widened their lead in the Big West women’s volleyball race.

Hawaii middles Amber Igiede and Skyler Williams combined for 24 of UH’s 41 kills while hitting .536 between them and the Wahine controlled the net with 15 blocks in their seventh straight win.

“Very pleased with how the team played, especially the blocking,” UH coach Robyn Ah Mow said. “And when our middles can get the same (amount of) attempts as the outsides and hit for a high percentage that means our passing is also doing pretty good, passing and/or defense.”

With the win, UH (18-6, 15-1 Big West) opened up a two-game lead in the conference race with four matches left in the regular season. They received some help on Saturday when Long Beach State knocked off second-place UC Santa Barbara (13-3 BWC) and capitalized on Sunday.

The Rainbow Wahine depart on their final road trip of the regular season this week and play at fourth-place CSU Bakersfield (16-8, 9-7) on Friday and at third-place Cal Poly (13-14, 11-5) on Saturday.

As the title chase reaches the stretch run, UH players and coaches have spoken about focusing on their side of the net throughout the season and the Wahine finished off an efficient homestand with Sunday’s sweep.

The Wahine hit a combined .388 in their wins over UC Irvine on Friday and UC San Diego (9-18, 6-10) on Sunday, powered by their production in the middle.

Igiede followed up a career-best 17 kills on Friday with 13 more on Sunday and tied a career-best with 10 blocks. Williams accounted UH’s first three kills against UCSD and finished with 11 with one error in 19 attempts.

“That’s an emphasis for the entire season,” Ah Mow said. “That’s the game of volleyball. You have to make sure your middles are in to open the outsides later in the match. Kate (Lang) definitely set a good game today.”

Ah Mow’s answer drew a fist pump from Lang, UH’s freshman setter, at the interview table after she posted 37 assists and seven digs.

“It’s the best feeling,” Lang said of having Igiede or Williams in the middle when the Wahine need a sideout. “It’s, ‘OK, good pass, run my middles and we’re going back to serve.’ It’s nice.”

UH’s block total in three sets on Sunday came up one shy of its season high of 16 set in a five-set loss at Utah Valley on Sept. 2. Along with Igiede’s production, Tiffany Westerberg was in on five blocks and 5-foot-9 Brooke Van Sickle had four, teaming with Williams on a roof on match point.

“It just comes down to … (staying) low and tight, pressing, just the little things that add up, especially with blocking,” Williams said.

“When we take care of our blocking assignments it’s … excitement,” she added, letting out a deep exhale in the pause. “We should be taking care of it, but still at the end of the day it’s something we’ve been working on so it feels great to accomplish it.”

Van Sickle led the UH defense with nine digs in a relatively quiet match offensively for the team’s kills leader. She finished with six kills along with Riley Wagoner and Westerberg added five.

UC San Diego was led by Ava McInnes’ 13 kills and Trinity Castaneda, who began her college career at UH, had 12. ‘Iolani graduate Naya Dong led the Tritons with 14 digs.

UH closed the first set with an 11-2 run and opened up a 20-13 lead in the second before holding off a Tritons comeback. The Wahine saw a 10-point lead in the third whittled to two when UCSD went on a 7-1 run late in the set. With UH up 22-20, Lang went outside to Van Sickle for back-to-back kills and the Van Sickle-Williams block ended the match.