Fifteen minutes after losing a match they could not afford to lose, the members of the Hawaii volleyball team walked out of the locker room in a collective daze.

"We just have to forget about this," UH outside hitter Siki Zarkovic said of the Warriors’ 25-23, 25-21, 18-25, 25-22 loss to UC Santa Barbara in the Stan Sheriff Center on Friday night.

It was a not-so-good Friday for the Warriors, who needed to win to move into playoff position. They are in 10th place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation at 8-13 with three regular-season matches remaining, including tonight’s rematch against the Gauchos.

The top eight teams qualify for the MPSF playoffs. California Baptist, which is not eligible for postseason play, is grouped ahead of the Warriors. The Gauchos, who improved to 9-10, are now tied for seventh place.

How many victories would it take for the Warriors? Nine? Ten? Eleven?

"We can’t think about that," UH coach Charlie Wade said. "We’ll have to see what happens with the rest of the league. Right now, our only focus is to win. We need to win."

The Warriors were able to diagnose Friday night’s ailments. Their usually rhythm-busting serves too often were long or into the net in the first two sets. They also were victimized by the outfielder’s dilemma: Soft hits fell in front of defenders or over their out-stretched arms.

"We let them score on some slow, beachy roll shots," Wade said. "There were a lot of slow (shots for kills) in sets one and two."

In the third set, the Warriors corrected those vulnerabilities, particularly on the right side covered by opposite Brook Sedore and setter Joby Ramos.

"And we won (the third set) convincingly," Wade noted.

The Warriors appeared ready to force a fifth set when they stormed to a 20-16 lead.

But then the Gauchos scored five points in a row, a run that stopped when Austin Kingi’s fourth serve of the turn sailed long.

The Gauchos then scored four of the final five points of the match for their fifth consecutive victory and seventh in their past eight matches.

"We’ve had a good run now," UCSB middle blocker Dylan Davis said. "It’s tough coming into this place. It’s an amazing gym with amazing fans."

The Gauchos were without their steersman for the second half of the match after setter Jonah Seif became violently ill early in the second set. He spent the remainder of the match being treated in the training room for what appeared to be a stomach virus.

The Gauchos then handed the keys to the offense to seldom-used Andrew Kocur.

"It was pretty surprising," Kocur said of Seif’s illness. "I got to the gym thinking I wasn’t even going in. Then I got the nod. He wasn’t feeling well. I was mentally prepared. I did as much as I could, and we got the win."

Kocur was able to spread the offense. Miles Evans blasted 14 kills and Evan Licht had 12 kills, most launched from behind the 10-foot line.

Davis also came up with nine kills (against one error), hit .533 and contributed to all of the Gauchos’ 6.5 blocks.

While most middles feast on quick sets, Davis has an expanded menu of shots that includes step-out moves and step-back swings.

"It’s something I’ve been coached not to do," Davis said, smiling. "It’s one of those things. It’s something I’ve always been comfortable with. I tried to perfect it and make it something I can use to my advantage."

Wade said: "Give them a lot of credit."

Sedore led the Warriors with 15 kills and Zarkovic added 14. JP Marks, who had been in a slump the past few matches, responded with his best match in two weeks: 11 kills, .364 percentage and seven floor-burn digs.

"We needed to serve better," Wade said. "That was pretty simple."