UC Santa Barbara has been waiting, counting the days, the hours, the minutes … even the seconds … until the Big West volleyball season opens.

The Gauchos’ athletic department made it a point to make today a blue-and-gold-letter day complete with a countdown clock on its website, marking the time until No. 14 Hawaii comes to town.

Time will be up tonight at 7 in the Thunderdome, a 6,000-seat arena that pays homage to Mel Gibson’s Mad Max movies with an often raucous student section now banned from throwing blue tortillas. (Still allowed across campus at Harder Stadium soccer matches).

“We, and our athletic department, are excited to open the conference season at home with Hawaii,” said fourth-year UCSB coach Nicole Lantagne Welch. “Going up right away against the No. 14-ranked team and reigning conference champs will tell us a lot about ourselves.”

Although Hawaii leads the series 37-8, the Rainbow Wahine have experienced some tense moments, particularly when traveling to the alma mater of their coach Dave Shoji. In both 2013 and 2014, the matches went five, the outcomes critical to the Wahine earning a share of the conference title in ’13 and finishing second the following season.

“For us, the goal is to win the (Big West) title outright, get that automatic bid (in the NCAA tournament) and leave nothing up for speculation on the NCAA’s part,” Shoji said. “We want to win out, as always.”

Hawaii is 60-6 since its return to the Big West in 2012, running the table in 2012 and 2015. UCSB was tri-champion with Hawaii and Cal State Northridge in 2013, and last won the championship outright in 2004.

This season, the Gauchos (9-4) are off to their best start since 2009, when they finished tied for second. Lantagne Welch can point to her team’s resurgence — injury-plagued UCSB was 7-20, 3-13 last year — as a sign that the conference as a whole is stronger.

“We have already seen several teams with wins over Top 25 programs at the time,” she said, listing the upsets by UC Irvine over USC, Cal Poly over Western Kentucky, UC Davis over Santa Clara and UCSB over Colorado State. “That really speaks volumes about the overall strength of Big West volleyball.”

The Gauchos are 3-1 at home, the lone loss coming against Pitt in the Sept. 4 finale of the UCSB Invitational. Avoiding a second home defeat would mean ending Hawaii’s 15-match conference winning streak that dates back to 2014.

“No surprise that Hawaii looks very strong,” Lantagne Welch said. “They have an experienced go-to player (Nikki Taylor), and good athletes everywhere around her. They are passing very well and are getting production from a lot of players. They are a great serving team, and that was extremely evident last weekend versus Pepperdine (22 aces in two matches).”

UCSB’s starting lineup includes a sophomore and four freshmen. Two of the freshmen are redshirts — setter Hannah Juley, a transfer from Wisconsin, and 6-2 outside hitter Lindsey Ruddins, who played in six matches last year before a season-ending injury.

“For us to have success on Friday, first off, our young team needs to embrace the opportunity,” Lantagne Welch said. “We need to excel in the serve-and-pass battle and get kills from all areas of the court. In addition, defensively we need to be able to put up a solid block and play disciplined behind it, take advantage of the times we force them out of system.

“We’ve had some good matches with Hawaii over the last few years and look forward to another fun battle.”

The Gauchos last defeated the Wahine in Santa Barbara in 1993, winning twice on consecutive nights. Hawaii has won the last six on UCSB’s home court.