Brianna Lopez found her comfort zone in a return home.

Following a frustrating series in Manoa, the University of Hawaii softball team’s Big West schedule took Lopez back to Riverside, Calif., where she was a two-time all-state selection at Ramona High School.

With family, friends and former teammates and coaches in the stands at Amy S. Harrison Field, Lopez put together a bounce-back weekend with two complete-game victories to lead the Rainbow Wahine to a series win.

After giving up 13 runs in two losses in Cal Poly’s sweep of UH a week earlier, the left-hander held UC Riverside to one run on seven hits over 14 innings and earned her first Big West Pitcher of the Week award.

“Personally, it helped me reset a lot, especially being able to be with my parents,” Lopez said of the trip. “I don’t really like talking about bad games with my parents, but (last) week I did. I really had to reflect on what I did (and) what I can do better.

“For the most part it was just mental. Being able to play in front of my parents I think really benefited me.”

After winning their third road series of the Big West season, the Wahine will look to carry the momentum back to Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium for a three-game series with Cal State Bakersfield.

The Wahine (15-15, 9-6 Big West) and Roadrunners (8-25, 3-12) play a single game today at 6 p.m. and a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 2 p.m.

UH enters the weekend tied with Cal Poly in the Big West standings, three games behind co-leaders Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State. With a series at LBSU coming up next week, the Wahine likely need a sweep against the Roadrunners to remain among the contenders in the conference race.

“We’re going to know where we stand coming out of these next two series,” UH coach Bob Coolen said.

Lopez’s return to form certainly didn’t hurt last week. After a frustrating series against Cal Poly, Coolen said Lopez and catcher Izabella Martinez learned to adjust to varying strike zones in the UC Riverside series.

“We’re going to have umpires with different strike zones. Sometimes you have to throw through a pinhole,” Coolen said. “Within a week they learned that they need to adjust to the umpire rather than just keep pounding an area that isn’t going to be called.”

Lopez, who was named the conference Freshman of the Week earlier in the season, lowered her earned-run average to 2.13, good for third in the conference, while improving to 9-6. She posted her third shutout of the season in UH’s 2-0 win in the opener against the Highlanders and worked with a lead for most of a 7-1 win in the finale.

“I really believe that Cal Poly (series) helped us. As much as I hate saying it, we needed it,” Lopez said. “I think we, as a team, were a little too comfortable in the place we were at. Really getting to look back at what really happened and learning from it I think is really going to benefit us in the upcoming weeks.”

Lopez earned her first collegiate win in UH’s 7-5 win over CSU Bakersfield on Feb. 13 in Las Vegas to cap the opening weekend of the season.

The nonconference win was No. 1,100 in Coolen’s coaching career as the Wahine jumped out to a 6-1 lead then held off the Roadrunners late.

CSUB’s trip brings Campbell graduates Cydney and Cieana Curran back to RWSS. Both sisters have started all 33 games for CSUB and Cydney Curran leads the Roadrunners with a .323 batting average and 11 runs batted in. Cieana Curran enters the series at .222.