Fueled by All-American Emily Hartong’s 20 kills, 12th-ranked Hawaii pulled away from UC Riverside, 25-20, 25-15, 25-18, Friday in Riverside, Calif.

The Rainbow Wahine’s seventh straight win gives them a 23-4 record going into today’s final regular-season volleyball match at Cal State Fullerton.

They are 12-3 in the Big West and can earn a share of their 19th consecutive conference title if they win tonight. UC Santa Barbara (17-10, 12-3 BWC) lost to Long Beach State for the second time Friday, fighting off three match points before falling 25-14, 18-25, 20-25, 25-21, 16-14.

Hawaii had to rally from a frigid start to win the first set at Riverside (2-26, 1-15), which got its only conference victory at Cal Poly last week.

The Wahine lost five of the first six points. It took them 10 minutes to tie the Highlanders — at 10. They took their first lead on Kalei Adolpho’s kill at 14-13. That came in the midst of an 11-4 run that broke the set open.

Hartong was just getting warmed up. She had eight kills in the Wahine’s sweep of Cal State Northridge last Saturday, and had eight in the opening set Friday. She hit nearly .400 against the Highlanders and added three stuffs. Freshman Nikki Taylor was next, with eight kills, as UH coach Dave Shoji used all 14 players before the match was half over.

"I want everybody to have a little action going into the playoffs," Shoji said by phone. "If they sit a couple weeks, it’s hard to come in and do well."

Hawaii also got a career-high 15 digs — and a rare kill — from back-row sub Sarah Mendoza, who had her first double-digit-dig match a week earlier.

"Ever since we moved her to middle back she’s been making a lot of plays," Shoji said. "She’s just kind of a gamer, a nice player who gets her hands on a lot of balls. She’s not a pure middle back defender; she’s just getting the job done."

The Wahine went on a 14-5 run to pull away in Set 2, then scored eight of the night’s final 10 points to end it. They held the under-sized Highlanders to .085 hitting.

"It wasn’t smooth," Shoji said. "We have to do better tomorrow night. The focus now is to try and keep things in sync.

"At this point I’d just like to a see ‘W.’ It can be ugly as long as it’s a ‘W.’ "

Tonight’s match will be broadcast live on 1500-AM at 5 p.m. The NCAA Volleyball Selection Show will be shown live Sunday, at 4:30 p.m., on ESPNU.