Hawaii now has company atop the Big West women’s volleyball standings.

Powered by Maia Dvoracek’s multi-faceted performance, Cal Poly handed the Rainbow Wahine their first loss of the conference season on Saturday before a sellout crowd at the Mott Athletics Center in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Dvoracek finished with 21 kills on .514 hitting, 14 digs and four aces and posted her fourth block on match point and the Mustangs snapped UH’s eight-match winning streak to create a three-way tie for the Big West lead.

Cal Poly (10-8, 7-1 Big West) closed the first set with a 6-0 run and UH fought off six set points in a marathon second set. But the Mustangs again surged late in the third and fourth sets and celebrated a 25-22, 31-33, 25-21, 25-19 win.

UH (10-6, 7-1) will enter this week’s homestand tied with Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara (11-7, 7-1) for the Big West lead. The Wahine face Cal State Northridge on Friday and take on UCSB on Saturday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

“We talked a lot about how are we going to come back from this,” UH libero Talia Edmonds said, “because it’s one thing to take a loss and not learn anything from it, and it’s another thing to take it, really internalize it, let it burn for a little bit, and then get back into the lab and see how we’re going to get better. I definitely think this is a learning opportunity for us.”

Cal Poly hit .313 as a team on Saturday and sent back 14 blocks, while UH hit .145 with 31 attack errors.

Tommi Stockham posted 17 kills on the left side to complement Dvoracek, who had just two errors in 37 attempts. Lizzy Markovska added 11 kills for the Mustangs and middles Meredith Phillips and Kate Slack were each in on seven blocks.

UH middle blocker Amber Igiede led the Rainbow Wahine with 16 kills on .344 hitting and five blocks. Freshman outside hitter Caylen Alexander added 13 kills and middle Tiffany Westerberg had nine. Outside hitter Riley Wagoner posted seven of her nine kills in the second set and finished with 12 errors. Edmonds served up a career-high five aces in her third straight start in the libero jersey.

Kendra Ham made her first start of the season at opposite and finished with two kills. Braelyn Akana, who hadn’t played in the previous three matches, returned to the rotation in the second set and contributed two blocks. Chandler Cowell provided two kills off the bench as UH coach Robyn Ah Mow sought a spark in the fourth set.

Coming off a five-set win at CSU Bakersfield on Friday, UH trailed by three in the first set, then came back to take three-point leads on three occasions, the last at 22-19. Phillips and Emme Bullis combined on a block and London Haberfield followed with her second ace. A successful challenge by the Cal Poly coaching staff led to a net violation call on UH and extended the run. After a UH error gave Cal Poly set point, Stockham’s kill off the block capped the Mustangs’ 6-0 run to close the set.

The Rainbow Wahine bounced back by hitting .390 in the second set and survived six set points. They had two of their own turned away before a double-contact call on Bullis gave UH a third opportunity. This time UH setter Kate Lang served up an ace to end UH’s longest set of the season and tie the match.

“That goes to show at the end of the day even if were not executing on all fronts we have to be able to fight and not give up,” Edmonds said.

The third set was equally tight, with UH edging ahead 21-20. The Mustangs again took the lead and closed a 5-0 run with back-to-back blocks and an ace by Dvoracek.

Cal Poly took control early in the fourth set as the Wahine misfired and opened up a 16-8 lead. UH answered with an 8-1 run, highlighted by back-to-back aces by Edmonds, to close within a point at 17-16. But Cal Poly pulled away again and Stockham had three kills in a 5-1 surge to end the match.

“A big thing for us was we wanted to start strong, and I think we did that,” Edmonds said. “But it also came down to how are you finishing those last five, six points and what are you doing to play even cleaner toward the end of the game.

“That’s the kind of the worst feeling about it, like dang, there were a lot of things we could have done if we could have taken care of a couple more balls and those sets might have ended differently.”