The countdown is on.

Not just on ucsbgauchos.com, where the homepage has a clock showing the days, hours, minutes and seconds before the start of Friday’s Big West men’s volleyball match between No. 6 Hawaii and No. 11 UC Santa Barbara. The countdown also is on for the end of the regular season — four conference contests left for all six teams — where anyone could beat anyone on any given night.

There are few givens outside of the inaugural Big West tournament being played at Long Beach State April 19-21. There are likely scenarios: the top-ranked 49ers (21-0, 6-0) have all but clinched the No. 1 seed and UC San Diego (9-14, 0-6) is expected to be seeded No. 6.

But, with four teams sandwiched in between The Beach and the Tritons, all tied at 3-3, just who ends up with that all-important first-round bye and second seed could go down to the final night of regular-season play on April 14.

The other unknown? How will Hawaii respond on its second road trip in three weeks. The Rainbow Warriors went 0-for-March when they dropped all three matches in California, twice being swept at Cal State Northridge followed by a 3-1 nonconference defeat at Pepperdine.

“It will be interesting to see how well we adapt to going back on the road,” said sophomore middle Patrick Gasman, the conference’s reigning defensive player of the week. “I’ve never played at UCSB.

“We need to play like we did last week (sweeping UCSD twice). Those (road losses) are all in the past. We need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The last time the Warriors traveled to Goleta in 2016, they lost both MPSF matches to the Gauchos, the opener in four and the second 3-0. Five of the current Hawaii players appeared in those matches, all were freshmen: outside hitters Stijn van Tilburg and Brett Rosenmeier, and setter Joe Worsley; and briefly, middle Dalton Solbrig and defensive specialist Mamane Namahoe.

The Warriors say they prefer larger venues in which to play. UCSB’s Robertson “Rob” Gym is anything but.

“It’s like a small Gym I,” Solbrig said, comparing the 60-year-old, 2,600-seat Rob Gym to one of UH’s practice gyms. “It’s dimly lit with old wood floors, low ceilings.

“It’s not so much being unable to serve (with a high toss). In the Stan (Stan Sheriff Center) you are able to dig and pass balls higher. But we’ll adjust. I think on the last trip there were a little bit of jitters, a little nervousness. But after this past weekend, we know we can beat UCSB.”

The Gauchos are coming off a busy week where they played three matches in four days at three different sites. They were swept at UCLA last Wednesday, lost in four at CSUN on Friday then out-aced the Matadors 9-1 in a four-set win on Saturday.

History is not on Hawaii’s side this week. Dating back to 2010, the Warriors have lost six straight at Rob Gym and seven of eight.

What didn’t make the last road trip was Hawaii’s defense. The Warriors gave up a combined 20 aces in the three matches and were outblocked 28-20.

Discipline on defense will be the key against the Gauchos, Gasman said.

“We know they run a really fast offense and our block has to stay disciplined,” he said.

“The reason we beat UCSD was our defense,” Solbrig added. “Our guys were touching almost every ball (on the block), we passed well and our serving was tough.

“We served tough on the road the last time but it seems we served right at them, right in their laps. We’ll need to hit more seams (against UCSB) and get them out of system.”

Notes

Van Tilburg is 17 kills shy of becoming the 17th Warrior to reach the 1,000 career mark. He is fourth in the country in kill average (4.24 kps) … Worlsey is second nationally in assists (11.06 sps).