A fifth set in volleyball is overtime. Because that’s what we call it in other sports when the game is tied and the rules are messed with because it’s just going too long and a winner must be determined. Extra innings in baseball, penalty kicks in soccer. Football, as a sport, can’t even decide on one way to do it.

In college volleyball you play to 10 fewer points in the fifth and decisive set than in the previous four. The participants don’t seem to mind. Some fans dislike it more than others. Me? I’d like to see the final set be played to the same number of points as the others.

If yesterday’s start time had been later than 5 p.m., I would have felt differently in this case. When deadline looms, a quick 15-point rally-scoring fifth set is a beautiful thing.

But when visiting Southern Cal dominated the shortened fifth set — and thus toppled previously unbeaten Hawaii — I couldn’t help but wonder if the Rainbow Wahine might have had one more comeback in them if the fifth set went to 25 points, like the previous four that the teams split. The way USC took control, probably not, but the way Brittany Hewitt was playing and you’re never out of it with Kanani Danielson.

I always feel a little funny after watching the end of a five-set match … and not just in situations where a team falls into an early hole and finds itself in a kill-fight situation, like yesterday when UH went down 6-1 and it’s basically pau. (Hawaii came back from 4-0 to win the first set 25-23; that’s much more difficult to do when it’s 15 to win.)

The national championship match last December went to five sets, with Penn State edging Texas 15-13 in a dramatic decisive shorty. That one was so good, no one wanted it to end.

Maybe coach Dave Shoji had something left in his bottomless bag of tricks he could have used if the match were 10 points longer yesterday. But he said he’s fine with the way things are.

"I like the urgency of a 15-point game," he said. "It’s enough time to make a move. I kind of like the 15-point (fifth) set."

When I asked players Kanani Danielson, Hewitt and Elizabeth Ka’aihue if they thought playing all the sets to the same final score would improve volleyball, they all said ‘no’ so quickly it was as if they’d been offered ice cream sundaes made with mud syrup.

That’s understandable; they’re trained to win regardless of the situation, and it’s not like they’re being asked to score 25 points and the opponent 15.

I love Danielson’s attitude. She said it shouldn’t get to that point.

"It’s your job to get it done in three," the All-America junior said. "You should’ve done your job in the third or fourth set."

A sweep against this young but very good USC team was probably unrealistic. But when you win the first set and you’re at home — against a program whose number you’ve had for years — a four-set victory is a reasonable expectation.

Well, at least the biggest crowd of the season got to see overtime.