LOS ANGELES » Recovering from early problems and taking one of the nation’s leading men’s volleyball teams to five games could not end Hawaii’s losing streak Sunday.

The Warriors rallied in the second set and dominated the fourth before falling to USC, 25-17, 24-26, 25-22, 16-25, 15-10 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play at the Galen Center.

Steven Hunt scored 22.5 points on 20 kills, three block assists and one solo block. J.P. Marks added 12 kills, two aces and seven digs, and Sam Biscaro passed for 50 assists as Hawaii (6-11, 3-9), lost its sixth consecutive match.

"I’m proud of the guys’ effort that went into coming back," Warriors coach Charlie Wade said. "I’m really proud of the level of teamwork, how everybody stuck together when we were down."

UH went down early and badly against fourth-ranked USC (11-4, 9-4). The Warriors committed 12 attack errors in the first set while getting only one team block. The Trojans, however, made five team blocks and just one error on attack.

"We really gave the first set to them as a present," Marks said. "I think we were expecting too much from ourselves. We really tried to crush balls; we tried to serve aces. We realized that doesn’t work. We had to do something different. We had to focus on how to create scoring chances, eliminate errors and try to make the small play."

UH also had to concentrate on positioning. The Warriors twice were called for being out of rotation in the second set. But Wade viewed those mistakes as a turning point.

"It actually kind of helped us," Wade said. "I think it got us going. There was a little bit of confusion and everybody really had to communicate at a high level."

UH turned a 5-1 deficit in the second game into a 24-23 advantage. Marks pounded three successive kills to give the Warriors that lead. Hunt’s wide serve allowed the Trojans to tie the score at 24, but kills from Hunt and Marks secured the victory.

The third set gave USC a chance to rally. Hawaii held a 16-14 lead when the Trojans used a 5-1 surge to move ahead 19-17. Tony Ciarelli had two kills and a block during the spree.

The Warriors narrowed the deficit to 22-21, but USC scored two of its final three points on UH’s attack errors. Hunt and Marks dominated the fourth set. Hunt amassed four kills, two block assists and a solo block, while Marks had two kills, an ace and a solo block. UH also forced USC into 11 attack errors and a hitting percentage of minus-.154 in the set.

"We did a better job touching a few more balls on the block, played pretty good defense and our sideout game was really good," Wade said. "We sided out at a pretty good clip. There was a lot of good, meaningful dialogue, tactically. Guys were really communicating at a high level about what was going on."

But USC took early control of the final set. After UH held a 2-1 lead, a 6-0 blitz put the Trojans ahead 7-2. Three attack errors and two aces from Tanner Jansen resulted in five of those points.

Ciarelli slammed a match-high 21 kills, 13 of them in the third and fourth sets. The senior was ranked third nationally in kills per game, behind the second-place Hunt, as the week began.

"I’ve known him since he was born," Wade said of Ciarelli. "His mom and dad played at a really high level. For him, it’s second nature. He’s just an ultra-competitive dude."