In a blur of pink shirts and payback, fifth-ranked Hawaii took its frustrations out on Cal Poly on Saturday.

The Rainbow Wahine bounced back from their loss to UC Santa Barbara a night earlier with a 25-17, 25-16, 25-13 Big West Conference win over the Mustangs.

It was as clinical and complete as the scores indicate, in front of a Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 5,659.

Hawaii (16-2, 5-1 BWC) outhit the Mustangs (8-9, 2-2) .405 to .159 and outdug them 38-21.

Less than 24 hours after Friday’s five-set breakdown, the Wahine found someone they could pound. Playing in florescent pink shirts and socks in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, they never trailed, and remain a match behind Cal State Northridge in the BWC.

Hawaii’s next conference match is at Northridge (Oct. 24). They play an alumnae exhibition Friday.

All-American Emily Hartong — who else? — led the assault with 11 kills and four aces, knocking Cal Poly’s passers over with a few jump serves. In the final set, the senior served eight straight.

The crucial question though, was how would the underclassmen come back from the frightful night.

Freshman Nikki Taylor and sophomore Tai Manu-Olevao rallied big time. Taylor had 10 kills on .600 hitting — 638 points higher than Friday. Manu-Olevao collected eight kills and as many digs after a slow start.

"I think we got lulled into a false sense of security with our young players," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "They had a three- or four-week streak where they were pretty good. Friday night was more what we should have expected out of them, but they are both capable of having big nights and we need them in there."

Even petite setter Mita Uiato got into it on payback night, blasting a second-hit kill that seemed to make her feel tons better — and brought a broad grin. She had her fifth double-double of the season.

"It wasn’t fun at all (Friday)," said libero Ali Longo, one of UH’s seven seniors. "Most of us take it very personally. Most of us took that loss very personally. My feeling when I woke up today was thank God we get to play again."

Cal Poly essentially got offense from only two — ‘Iolani graduate Chelsea Hardin (nine kills) and freshman Taylor Gruenewald (eight), who hit .500. That was more than 300 points higher than any other Mustang attacker.

It wasn’t nearly enough, against a team that woke up angry and was looking for someone to take it out on.

"We talked about it a lot," Longo said. "I think our serving was much better tonight. We were aggressive the whole night. We were more in control of our side — the small plays and the quick balls that came back over, we were calm. Last night some of the balls that came back over, that we didn’t think would come back over, we were frantic with."

Cal Poly, which already has twice as many wins as last year, was in the wrong place at the wrong time, without enough ammunition.

"We don’t have a whole lot of arms now," said second-year coach Sam Crosson. "It’s what we have. We have to play differently than most traditional teams do. Other teams have higher, harder arms. It’s tough to generate kills against a block the size of Hawaii and against a defense as good as Hawaii’s."

That’s true, unless you catch the Wahine on a bad night. Then, as UCSB so relentlessly realized, they are just another Big West team.

"We have to learn that we have to prepare mentally every single night out," Shoji said. "If we don’t, it’s hard to flip the switch in the middle of a match. We almost did it, but you just don’t want to be in that situation.

"We can all handle losing if it’s to a better team and you’ve done your best. When you don’t, you’ve got to take some time to reflect on your preparation."