SANTA BARBARA, Calif. >> The plan is to be playing the best volleyball as the playoffs approach.

The Hawaii men’s team didn’t follow that plan Friday night in the opener of its two-match trip to UC Santa Barbara. The Rainbow Warriors struggled from the opening set and dropped a 25-15, 23-25, 25-18, 25-18 decision at Rob Gym in a battle of playoff-bound teams in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

Hawaii hit a meager .191 for the match, committed 15 service errors in the loss and dropped to 9-10 in the MPSF and 14-10 overall. Despite the result, the Warriors remain in the seventh spot in the standings while UCSB (11-8, 16-9) is in sixth. The top eight teams make the postseason tournament.

With three matches remaining, the Warriors could finish as high as fifth.

But that doesn’t concern coach Charlie Wade right now.

“It’s not about where we finish in the standings; it’s about playing our best volleyball at the end of the year,” he said. “Tonight, we just made too many service errors and didn’t execute some of the basic things we knew that was coming at us from the scouting report. We just didn’t do a very good job of it, no question.”

UCSB exploited the UH middle, with Henri Cherry and Ryan Hardy having their way against the Warriors’ block, or lack of a block. Cherry blasted 11 kills on 14 swings for a .714 hitting average and Hardy hit .583, scoring on nine of 12 attempts. Outside hitter Austin Kingi was the overall kill leader with 13 and hit .345.

Of course, it helps that the Gauchos have one of the best setters in the country in 6-foot-9 senior Jonah Seif.

“Their setter is really talented and he will adjust the game plan night to night, based on personnel and stuff,” said Wade. “We knew situations they were going to run middle and we just couldn’t stop it because it was well executed at their end. But we have to do a better job at being in the right spot at the right moment when you know it’s coming.”

UH seemed to find its groove early in the second set and opened up a 9-4 lead. The serving of Nainoa Frank got the Warriors going, Stijn Von Tilburg started putting balls away on the outside and Hendrik Mol became a force in the middle.

The Warriors took a 16-11 lead on a block and poke by Kupono Fey, but UCSB roared back. Matt March sided out and Parker Boehle took a soft shot with his hands and set up Seif for a kill on a second ball. A mistimed UH middle attack cut the lead to 18-17.

Fey restored order with a kill from the back row and Mol blocked a ball for a 20-17 lead.

The Gauchos cut it to 21-20 on a UH hitting error and the teams traded sideouts before Fey came up big at 23-22. He swatted a ball off the block and it fell barely outside the sideline for a 24-23 lead. Marsh sided out for UCSB before Von Tilburg put away the winning point with a hit high over the block. The Warriors hit .407 in the set.

“We brought in Brett Rosenmeier in the second set and he gave us a little bit of a lift,” said Wade.

But Hawaii couldn’t sustain the momentum and never led in the third set.

“Our serving kind of went sideways (after the second set),” Wade said. The Warriors made six service errors in the set.

“I’d say overall it was a pretty ugly match. We were coming off a five-set match on Saturday where we made 12 hitting errors in the match. I think we made twice that tonight. It was sloppy volleyball, no question.”

Hawaii finished the night with 24 hitting errors.

Van Tilburg led the Warriors with 13 kills, Fey had 11, Frank added eight (on .800 hitting) and Rosenmeier chipped in seven.

In the fourth set, UH rallied from a 12-9 deficit and took a 13-12 lead on a combo block by Mol and Ian McKellar. UCSB tied the score on a dink shot to start an 8-1 scoring run and put the match away.

It’s now a matter of the Warriors having a short memory and playing better today.

Wade sees it as a playoff preview.

“We know we’re going to be on the road this year in the first round,” he said. “Tomorrow is kind of the dry run for the playoffs because we know we have to go and play a good team on the road. We want to give ourselves a better chance to win.”

MPSF VOLLEYBALL

Wednesday

Stanford def. CSUN 25-19, 28-30, 25-23, 25-18

Cal Baptist def. UC Irvine 25-23, 25-22, 25-23

Thursday

Long Beach State def. Pepperdine 23-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-18, 24-22

Friday

UCSB def. Hawaii 25-15, 23-25, 25-18, 25-18

Cal Baptist def. UC San Diego 25-23, 26-24, 25-16

BYU def. UCLA 25-17, 19-25, 27-25, 25-13

Today

Hawaii at UC Santa Barbara, 4 p.m. HST

BYU at UCLA

CSUN at Pepperdine

Long Beach St. at Stanford

UC San Diego at USC

Sunday

UC Irvine at USC

NO. 7 UC SANTA BARBARA DEF. NO. 8 HAWAII 25-15, 23-25, 25-18, 25-18

Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills plus blocks plus aces).

Service Aces — Hawaii 3 (Frank 2, Rosenmeier). UCSB 7 (Cherry 2, Seif 2, Marsh 2, H. Boehle). Service errors — H awaii 15 (van Tilburg 3, Mol 3, Fey 3, Worsley 2, Rosenmeier 2, Frank, McKellar). UCSB 15 (Seif 5, Boehle 3, Marsh 3, Cherry 2, Kingi, Hardy). Assists — Hawaii 44 (Worsley 27, Franciskovic 12, Fey 2, Frank). UCSB 47 (Seif 40, Boehle 4, Kingi, Boehle, Cherry). T — 2:00. Officials — Tony Chan, Phil Meyer. A — 350.