IRVINE, Calif. » Michael Jackson’s "Thriller" was blasting throughout the Bren Events Center on Friday night, evoking visions of a graveyard that was aptly reflected on Hawaii’s side of the court.

UC Irvine was serving for the match at 24-23 and the Rainbow Wahine were all but left for dead. Not just their faint conference title hopes but potentially their NCAA tournament aspirations.

"I didn’t want to tell the team we lose this and we might not make the tournament," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "But I felt if we could just get something going, one play, we could make something happen.

"I didn’t know what it would be and I don’t know what it was, but we kept at it."

"It" turned into one of Hawaii’s biggest wins of the season.

Led by junior Tai Manu-Olevao’s career-high 21 kills and a team defense that finished with 104 digs — 33 in the final two sets — Hawaii wore down UC Irvine 21-25, 22-25, 26-24, 25-18, 15-7 in 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Senior Sarah Mendoza, moving from libero to defensive specialist in Set 3, led six Wahine in double-digit digs with 20 and sophomore setter Tayler Higgins finished with a career-high 19 digs to go with 53 assists.

Freshman Savanah Kahakai, making her road debut, replaced Mendoza at libero and finished with 13 digs. As her nerves steadied, so did Hawaii’s passing game.

"This was a big win for us," said Kahakai, noting that the Rainbow Wahine had lost their previous two five-setters this season.

"My mind-set was to just keep the ball in play so we could convert. I thought Tai came up big. We didn’t want the same thing to happen like at Long Beach."

Three weeks ago, Hawaii (15-5, 7-2 Big West) dropped a five-set match at Long Beach State, a match the Wahine felt they let get away. Friday, it nearly did again, with Hawaii starting slowly once more, getting stuck in rotations that led to runs of points, and a step-late defense.

"We started out pretty bad," Manu-Olevao said. "I was hitting negative and I wanted to pull my hair out. We knew the only way we could win was to go to five and take all the advantages (UCI) had and turn them into ours.

"We started putting pressure on them and you could see it affecting them. This was big for us, a big character builder."

Hawaii could have easily folded in Set 3 with the Anteaters in control at 21-17. Senior Kalei Adolpho got free for a kill and she and Kalei Greeley teamed to block Alison Lee to tie at 21. Cassidy Pickrell, who finished with 16 kills, added two in helping UCI edge out 23-22. Manu-Olevao answered, tying it again, but Victoria Dennis had the UCI faithful standing for match point with one of her 10 kills.

A kill by junior middle Olivia Magill tied it for what would be the last time at 24. Manu-Olevao gave Hawaii its first set point with one of her rockets and Pickrell’s hitting error gave the Wahine the set and new life.

Hawaii, which had 11 service errors through the first three sets to UCI’s one, finally found the court with its serves. The Wahine had just two errors the rest of the way while picking up their defense, particularly picking up the Anteaters’ tip shots and finally digging Pickrell’s line shots.

Behind tough serves from Mendoza and Kahakai, Hawaii took control in Set 4, pulling away to a 20-15 lead. Manu-Olevao was all but untouchable at the end with three kills among the last three shots, including getting one of her own tip shots to fall.

The Wahine led 8-5 at the changeover in Set 5 and it was all but over. Magill took over with three kills, the last at 14-7 and Taylor ended it.

"After Set 3, Hawaii dug in, they picked up their defense and that was probably the biggest difference," UCI coach Paula Weishoff said. "At one point, we had a 71-59 advantage in digs and we both finished with 104.

"And No. 10 (Manu-Olevao) stepped it up. We played a great team tonight — they stepped up their game and made the plays. Hawaii played some really nice volleyball tonight."

Pickrell and Alison Lee finished with 16 kills for UCI (15-9, 5-4). Libero Arden Davis played a spectacular defensive match (31 digs).

Hawaii heads to Cal State Fullerton (2-19, 0-9) on Saturday for a 4 p.m. contest.

"We played great defense tonight at the end," Shoji said. "And Tai completely turned her game around. She and Nikki (Taylor) were buried in negative numbers and turned it around.

"This was a huge win for us."

FRIDAY

Hawaii def. UC Irvine 21-25, 22-25, 26-24, 25-18, 15-7

UC Davis def. UC Santa Barbara, 20-25, 25-14, 25-21, 21-25, 15-10

SATURDAY

Hawaii at CSU Fullerton, 4 p.m.

Long Beach State at CSU Northridge

UC Santa Barbara at UC Riverside

SUNDAY

Cal Poly at UC Davis

Hawaii def. UC Irvine 21-25, 22-25, 26-24, 25-18, 15-7

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 2 (Greeley, Kahakai). UC Irvine 3 (Lee, Anderson, Hannah). Service errors — Hawaii 13 (Higgins 3, Manu-Olevao 2, Mendoza 2, Kahakai 2, Greeley, Long, Koelsch, Guinasso). UC Irvine 4 (Lee 2, Pickrell, Anderson). Assists — Hawaii 67 (Higgins 53, Koelsch 5, Kahakai 3, Mendoza 2, Taylor, Manu-Olevao, Adolpho, Guinasso). UC Irvine 55 (Anderson 49, Lee 4, Davis 2). T — 2:40. A — 476. Referees — Marjorie Ray, Dan Willis.