October began with a bang for Rainbow Wahine volleyball. It ended with a shocking bang-bang-bang, with Hawaii losing three of its past four to unranked Big West opponents.

All-American Emily Hartong admits her team was "blindsided." Coach Dave Shoji is still searching for explanations — and, especially, solutions.

"You never think you’re going to lose," he said, "and when you do it’s a reality check. It can happen and it does happen in all of athletics."

The 13th-ranked Wahine (16-4) start the second half of the conference season this weekend against UC Irvine (11-11) and Long Beach State (12-9).

The Anteaters have never beaten them, but neither had Cal State Northridge or UC Davis until last week. And Irvine leads the BWC in aces and is second in blocks. It doesn’t bode well for UH, whose passing has been porous during this slide.

The Wahine, who haven’t lost a regular-season conference crown since 1994, are "mired" in third with the Beach, which hasn’t won in Hawaii since 1993. It has won its past four and leads the conference in blocking, another critical concern for a UH team desperately seeking the slick offense that was so effective in wins over top-ranked Texas, 10th-ranked UCLA and 23rd-ranked Creighton the first month.

Shoji said part of the problem has been simply that opponents can do more scouting later in the season. He still "puts a lot of it into the passing" and only looks as far as his middle attack to prove the point. Saturday, Jade Vorster had only nine attempts in five sets because Mita Uiato had to work so hard to chase passes down she rarely had the option of setting middle.

Senior libero Ali Longo agrees. The players have discussed their frustrations constantly since the home loss to UC Santa Barbara three weeks ago — "It’s not something you can just let go" — and have come to few other conclusions.

"This (last) weekend wasn’t our best passing weekend," she said. "Passing can be up and down, you’ve just got to be able to bounce back and help your team out. Passing was a big thing this weekend in my eyes, mostly because that’s what I’m in charge of."

Longo had an interesting take on last weekend’s losses. She called the Northridge loss simply "a bad game." At Davis, she sensed something else.

"We got a little bit frantic just because we all wanted to play so well, to prove to our team we were going to be OK and not let anyone down," Longo said. "That was the wrong mind-set going in. As a team we know no one is trying to make errors. I think against Davis it was a little more of everyone trying to fix things without actually going through the game — like I just want it to be better NOW."

The Wahine haven’t lost four matches in a season since 2008. They reached a regional final that year, growing from each lost game. They are still 15th — within hosting distance — in the NCAA power rating. And clearly, the Big West is a free-for-all with a suddenly vulnerable Hawaii still wearing the 13th-ranked bull’s-eye.

This week’s practices have been rife with repetitions and technique, with tweaks to the passing formation and plenty of positive reinforcement.

"Our psyche is a little down now, so we’ve got to get the players believing in themselves again," Shoji said. "We want to accentuate the positive plays. We need to get our swagger back. I thought Hartong did a great job of that Saturday after struggling Thursday. We need everybody to feel good about themselves and play the way they can play."

The Wahine are glad to be home, and have another shot at the Big West teams.

"We knew these teams were capable of beating us," Hartong said. "We barely won against Northridge last year. They had two game points and they made errors and we came back. We got lucky. It goes to show you any team can take over no matter what you’re ranked. They proved that last weekend. Davis and Northridge are two really good teams and it’s nice we have the opportunity to play them again later this season."