The Hawaii men’s volleyball team wasn’t quite as efficient as it has been, and it didn’t really matter against another first-time opponent.

Alaka‘i Todd had a match-high 10 kills and the third-ranked Rainbow Warriors slugged their way with the majority of their starters in throughout a 25-17, 25-23, 25-17 win over Sacred Heart on Friday night.

It was another early night for a SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 3,834 as Hawaii (13-1) won its 12th consecutive match. UH has won 21 of 22 sets played on its current homestead but uncharacteristically struggled Friday, hitting balls out.

The Rainbow Warriors hit .345 in their first-ever meeting against the Pioneers (6-10), which is their lowest output since the third match of the season back in early January.

“ A little loose,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “We hit balls out of bounds, which we haven’t been doing, but no need to hit the panic button. Obviously you don’t like to hit balls out.”

Senior Chaz Galloway had five kills in seven swings without an error before sitting for the third set.

Senior middle Guilherme Voss had five kills in eight swings and was also in on six blocks, tying a season high.

“We could have been better, but I think we were very good on the one-on-one blocking,” Voss said. “We weren’t making obscene errors. It wasn’t hits into the net, hits 10 feet out. It’s small stuff we can fix throughout a week of practice.”

Senior Spyros Chakas, who entered the week second in the country in hitting percentage in Division I, had four errors in the first set.

He sat out the second set before coming back in the third. He finished the match with four kills and six errors and hit -.200.

“With (Chakas), he didn’t like getting off to a slow start and I just wanted to see how he would respond coming in off the bench,” Wade said. “Obviously he’s an important part of what we are doing and I didn’t want to ice him the whole time.”

Hawaii needed back-to-back kills from Tread Rosenthal, who had a match-high 25 assists, and Todd to set up set point and avoid hitting negative in the first set.

Hawaii had six attack errors and three service errors in the first set but still managed to win it by eight points.

“It’s nice when you’re not playing your best to still score enough and do enough stuff to win a set like that,” Wade said.

Hawaii got untracked in the second set with senior Keoni Thiim taking Chakas’ place at outside hitter.

His ace coming out of the media timeout capped a 5-1 UH run to gain some separation and an 8-2 run with Galloway and Todd behind the service line for most of it gave the Rainbow Warriors a 2-0 lead.

Todd had six kills and Galloway added five kills in seven attempts without an error to lead UH offensively through two sets.

Hawaii hit .524 in the second set after opening the match hitting .067 in the first. Thiim’s ace was gunned at 78 miles per hour, making its Hawaii’s hardest-hit serve of the season.

The only difference in Hawaii’s starting seven in the third set was Thiim staying in at outside hitter in place of Galloway.

Freshman Louis Sakanoko made his first appearance after the media timeout up 15-12 and promptly served an ace on his version of a changeup from the service line.

All four of his serve attempts during his run stayed in.

“In the timeout I walked over to him and said, ‘What am I going to say to you right now?’” Wade said. “He said, “If it’s less than perfect toss, put it in play. If it’s a good toss, hit it hard.’ He’s figuring out how to prioritize what’s going on.”

The two teams will play again on Sunday at 5 p.m.