They’ve beaten the best teams in the Big West and lost to teams that rarely, if ever, have defeated the Rainbow Wahine.

Despite the roller-coaster nature of this season for the Hawaii women’s volleyball team, it returns home today for its final two home matches of the season with a share of first place in the conference after a 26-24, 21-25, 25-9, 25-18 win over UC Davis on Saturday at University Credit Union Center in Davis, Calif.

Two days after suffering the first loss in 34 all-time meetings against UC Riverside, Hawaii (16-8, 10-4) knocked the Aggies (15-8, 10-4) out of sole possession of the top spot in the conference.

The Rainbow Wahine avenged a four-set loss to UC Davis last month in Hawaii in a win that included its most lopsided set of the season when it beat the Aggies by 16 points in the third before closing out the match on a double block by Caylen Alexander and Jacyn Bamis in the fourth set.

“I was a little nervous going into it because it was a 2 p.m. game,” Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow said. “Our serve pass was at 10 to 11 (a.m.), which was kind of close to the game. Little worried about how the girls would come out. A little slow, but then, you know, the third, fourth set they just kind of capitalized and did what they needed to do.”

Alexander finished with a match-high 21 kills and Tali Hakas hit .480 with a career-high 14 kills to lead UH.

Bamis and Stella Adeyemi added nine kills each for the Rainbow Wahine, who hit .480 and .333 in the final two sets to finish at .287 for the match.

Alexander added two solo blocks and Tayli Ikenaga had a match-high 19 digs for UH, which doubled up the Aggies in aces 6-3.

Hawaii held UC Davis opposite hitter Olivia Utterback to nine kills and a .088 hitting percentage. She had 21 kills and hit .318 in a win over Hawaii in October on Oahu.

“She got whatever kills. She’s a good hitter and is going to get kills, but I think us being a little more disciplined helped,” Ah Mow said. “I think we served pretty good to take them to the point where we could get touches on the ball. Not necessarily down for blocks but touches to keep (the rally) going.”

After UC Davis battled back to even the match after the second set, UH blew the Aggies away with an impressive final two sets.

Setter Kate Lang, who finished with a match-high 51 assists, eight digs and four kills, served two aces and the final seven points of an 8-0 UH run that closed out the third set.

Hawaii hit .480 without a hitting error and held the Aggies to a minus-.033 hitting percentage to take the lead after three sets.

UC Davis never led in the fourth set and Hakas had three straight kills during a 5-0 run to turn a 10-8 lead into a seven-point advantage that the Aggies never recovered from.

Hakas and Alexander each had six kills in the fourth set, combining to beat the entire Aggies team, which had 10 kills.

“Me and Kate talked after the loss about having trust in your hitters,” Ah Mow said. “If you don’t have trust in your hitters, then the hitters are out there for no reason. You need to have trust and we needed to open up the court. We set (Hakas) into some balls and she got there to get it and got in a rhythm and she got her kills.”

Hakas recorded double figures in kills for the eighth time this season and hit better than .300 for the third time.

“I think it makes all the difference. At the beginning it was a little bit sensitive I wasn’t getting as much balls, and when I did I wasn’t playing as free as I usually do,” Hakas said. “At the moment Kate got me going, I was just going for it. It just feels so good.”

Hawaii will play its final two matches at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center next week against Long Beach State on Friday and UC San Diego on Saturday.

UH will then close the regular season at Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine before the Big West Championships on Nov. 27-30 in Irvine, Calif.