It’s been a bittersweet week for Charlie Wade. The Hawaii men’s volleyball coach hasn’t lost a match in February, his fourth-ranked Rainbow Warriors winning six this month to go along with three at the end of January.

But Wade did lose something Monday, off the court and three doors down from his third-floor office in the athletic complex. That’s when Dave Shoji, who hired Wade to be his assistant in 1995, announced his retirement after 42 seasons heading the Rainbow Wahine.

“He’s meant a lot to me, brought me here 22 years ago,” Wade said as the Warriors prepared for this week’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches with No. 10 Pepperdine. “He’s been such a big part of Hawaii volleyball but I understand if he wants to move on.

“We spent a lot of time together during the season, during the offseason, recruiting, road trips. Going to card shops, major and minor league baseball games … We did a lot of fun stuff together.”

Their connection began long before Wade spent 11 seasons as Shoji’s top assistant. When coaching high school one of his top players was named Tonya Williams … who later would be known as “Teee” and go on to be a three-time All-American, two-time national player of the year, and helped Hawaii to what would be their last NCAA championship in 1987.

In Wade’s first two seasons with the Wahine, the starting setter was Robyn Ah Mow, who set the team to a 64-4 record and an NCAA runner-up finish. In his 11 seasons, Hawaii lost just one regular-season conference match with four final-four appearances.

“We had a good run,” he said.

Wade’s enjoying a mini-run this year where the Warriors have won their past nine at home — and 13 dating back to last season. Hawaii hasn’t been in the Stan Sheriff Center since its 3-1 victory over UC Santa Barbara on Feb. 4 — going 4-0 on a six-day road trip — and “it does seem like it’s been a while since we’ve been here,” Wade said. “But I feel we’re better than when we last played at home. We continue to improve and that part’s encouraging.

“We’re looking forward to getting back out and competing. Pepperdine is good, Obviously, they’re still searching for a lineup. They have a lot of options so that makes it more difficult to prepare for them.”

Pepperdine (6-5, 4-4) is coming off a five-set loss at USC, a match where the Waves had 23.5 blocks and three players turn in career-highs in stuffs: junior middle/opposite Clay Carr in on 11, sophomore hitter David Wieczorek 10 and senior setter Joshua Stewart seven. Wieczorek finished with a double-double when adding 18 kills and Stewart did as well with 48 assists.

The Malibu Roofing Company is second in the MPSF and third nationally at 2.49 bps. Five Waves rank nationally in blocking, led by team leader Mitchell Penning, a senior middle, whose 1.16 bps has him sixth in the country.

“Pepperdine is one of those programs that finds a way to win,” said Hawaii assistant Joshua Walker, who is in charge of scouting. “They’re coming off a tough loss and you know teams coming off a tough loss will find ways to play better their next match. And teams always seem to play better in Hawaii.”

The Warriors are in third place in the MPSF, behind first-place Long Beach State and BYU. That they are in that position “is not a surprise,” Walker said. “We’ve worked really hard in the off-season and the results are based off all the hard work that being put in.

“But we’re not satisfied where we’re at. We think we could have played some matches better and our last one (Lindenwood) was probably our worst match of the year. We realize how important this homestand is for us in terms of where we want to be.”

As good as Pepperdine is in blocking, Hawaii is better. The Warriors lead the country and the MPSF at 2.68 bps.

Hawaii ranks fourth in hitting percentage, nationally at .322 and fifth in kills per set (13.15). Sophomore opposite Stijn van Tilburg is sixth in the NCAA in kills (4.23).