Pac-12 5, Hawaii 0

Within a span of seven days, the conference that Hawaii has long sought to find a home for its athletic teams in has made itself at home on Oahu.

Football (Washington). Women’s soccer (Arizona State and UCLA).

And now twice in volleyball (Arizona State and Oregon).

The No. 20 Rainbow Wahine, after falling behind 0-2 to the No. 22 Ducks on Friday night, saw their rally fall short in their Hawaiian Airlines Classic match.

Senior All-American Liz Brenner put down 18 kills and Oregon used a 5-0 run early in Set 5 to survive, 25-18, 25-14, 19-25, 18-25, 15-8 in front of a Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 5,841.

The Rainbow Wahine (3-2) got impressive outings from junior middle Olivia Magill (18 kills, six blocks) and junior hitter Tai Manu-Olevao (14 kills, three aces). Freshman hitter Kalei Greeley added 13 kills for Hawaii, which has a quick turnaround when it faces St. John’s (5-1) on Saturday in rare noon contest.

The tournament concludes with Oregon (5-0) — which has all but clinched the tournament title — and New Mexico (2-3) meeting at 2:30 p.m. The Lobos were swept 25-22, 25-18, 25-12 by the Red Storm in Friday’s first match.

Oregon coach Jim Moore was relieved to be unbeaten after the hard-fought 2-hour, 10-minute battle. He wasn’t surprised that it had gone five, even after his Ducks controlled the first hour.

"I’m never surprised at a Dave Shoji-coached team," Moore said of Hawaii. "It’s their trademark, them and Penn State, playing hard every single point.

"I knew they would come back (after Set 2). Our players realized that (the Wahine) were never going to go away. We’re lucky to survive this."

Hawaii, which used a fairly young, untested lineup against Oregon for most of the match, has little time to dwell on the loss. It is a good thing in Magill’s eyes.

"I think veteran teams can sometimes hold something like this," the Arizona transfer said. "But our team is new enough, I think we can flush this away and come back Saturday.

"We learned a lot tonight. We didn’t get on them early and you can’t do that with good competition. You only learn that when facing hard teams. We just came up short."

It took a while for Hawaii to match Oregon’s tempo.

"I think we were a little shocked at how fast their offense was," Greeley said after making her second career start. "As Dave said to us (after the match), there were actually two matches within that match, the first two sets and then the rest."

The Wahine adjusted to the Ducks’ speed with some adjustments of their own. Freshman Megan Huff replaced junior transfer Keani Passi on the outside, giving Hawaii a different and taller look.

"I had thought about starting Huff," Shoji said of his 6-foot-3 converted middle blocker. "And we’ll take a look at starting her tomorrow.

"I think we proved to a lot of people we can play with a really good team and I’m proud of how we bounced back. In the fifth, anything can happen, and we got down early.

"It’s a quick turnaround for us and I just hope we have enough left against a really good St. John’s team."

Friday night, Hawaii played catch-up in Set 1 after opening the match with an ace by Greeley. Two consecutive hitting errors by the Wahine helped the Ducks to a 7-4 lead and the Wahine never got closer than 17-15.

Things went from bad to worse in Set 2. Two consecutive aces by Brenner put Oregon ahead at 4-1 and, after the Ducks picked up what would by their fourth of six aces, it was 16-5.

Momentum came out of the locker room with Hawaii in Set 3 as the Wahine rediscovered their passing and their serve. A night after zinging New Mexico for 13 aces, Hawaii used two in running away to a 19-10 lead.

The Ducks closed to 22-18, but the Wahine refused to fold. Manu-Olevao took over, scoring the team’s final three points on a kill, a block assist with Magill and her second ace.

The Wahine continued to attack the Ducks with tough serving and a multi-prong offense. Manu-Olevao put down six kills and Hawaii added to its ace total with three, including Tayler Higgins’ second that helped put UH ahead for good at 10-6.

St. John’s 3, New Mexico 0

Junior hitter Karin Palgutova put down 19 kills and senior hitter Aleksandra Wachowica added 11 as the Red Storm needed just 81 minutes to sweep the Lobos.

Sophomore middle Briana Guzman added 10 kills, hitting .643 with just one error in 14 swings. Junior libero Shawna-Lei Santos (Sacred Hearts) had nine of the team’s 26 digs.