It was Flashback Friday for No. 25 Hawaii, and not in a good way.

The Rainbow Wahine were seemingly cruising through their Big West volleyball opener at UC Davis when visions of last season appeared before them. The Aggies stunned Hawaii in five sets last October and, on Friday night, the Aggies were poised to force at least a fourth set when they served with a 24-23 lead in Set 3.

"They had a nice crowd, over 1,000, and I could envision the crowd really getting behind them and putting pressure on us," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "I was having some flashbacks to last year."

Different season, different outcome. And, in many ways, a different Tai Manu-Olevao.

The junior outside hitter rebounded from a very slow start (1 kill, 3 errors) to finish with 13, including nine in the final set, as Hawaii won its fourth straight via a 25-18, 25-18, 26-24 sweep at The Pavilion in Davis, Calif.

Junior middle Olivia Magill added 10 kills and senior libero Sarah Mendoza 13 digs for the Rainbow Wahine (9-3, 1-0 Big West). Senior middle Kalei Adolpho was in on seven of the 10.5 blocks for Hawaii, the top blocking team in the conference.

Kaylin Squyres led the Aggies (5-9, 0-1) with 13 kills and Megan Lancaster had 11 digs during the 93-minute match.

Hawaii is at UC Riverside on Saturday. The game plan against the Highlanders (2-10, 0-0) will include cutting down on serving and unforced hitting errors. Friday, the Wahine had nine serving errors, six coming in Set 1.

"It’s not something we want to do. We can’t keep giving away points like that," Shoji said. "I’m happy that we weathered the storm, but I’d like us to play more error-free."

As for Manu-Olevao, "she struggled a bit, but she bailed us out at the end," he said. "She didn’t get down on herself, worked really hard to get some kills.

"She’s absolutely a different person this year, better mentally, better skills. We have a lot of confidence in her and she was the one to go to at the end."

In the beginning, Manu-Olevao and Hawaii’s servers struggled. The Rainbow Wahine had six errors, which didn’t affect the final outcome but did hurt them from getting into more of a rhythm.

They found it after the technical timeout, when they led 15-11. Sophomore defensive specialist Katiana Ponce served the Wahine to an 18-11 lead and Hawaii pulled ahead 22-13, helped by two straight kills from Adolpho.

The Wahine struggled with their passing but cut their service errors down to one in Set 2, taking control early at 9-3 as Mendoza served for seven straight. Manu-Olevao, who had hit negative .250 in Set 1, started to get herself back on track with two kills during Mendoza’s extended stay on the back line.

Mendoza’s next serving run included an ace as Hawaii pulled away at 20-14. The Aggies swapped points to 23-17, then used a hitting error by Ginger Long to hold off one set point at 24-18.

Sophomore setter Tayler Higgins’ dump shot ended it, putting the Wahine up 2-0.

Hawaii, which had only trailed once in the match (3-2 in Set 2), found itself down deep early in Set 3. Two aces by Allie Wegener helped Davis jump out to a 4-0 lead, and the Wahine played catchup for the next 30 minutes, getting their first lead at 11-10 on a swing by Manu-Olevao.

After three ties, the Aggies used kills by Kendall Walbrecht and Wegener, a block and a hitting error by Magill for a 19-15 margin. Hawaii’s rally was slow but steady, turning a 21-18 deficit into a 21-21 tie, the 3-0 spurt capped by a block from Manu-Olevao and Adolpho on Valerie Brain.

It would be tied three more times, the last at 24 when the Wahine held off set point with a kill by Manu-Olevao.

Manu-Olevao put down her 13th kill, and ninth of the set, to give Hawaii match point. She and Nikki Taylor combined to block Squyres for the team’s third consecutive sweep.

Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills plus blocks plus aces). Service Aces — Hawaii 3 (Higgins, Greeley, Mendoza). UCD 4 (Wegener 3, Conners). Service errors — Hawaii 9 (Higgins 2, Taylor 2, Manu-Olevao 2, Greeley 2, Mendoza). UCD 4 (Wegener 2, Quinn, Conners). Assists — Hawaii 45 (Higgins 41, Manu-Olevao, Adolpho, Koelsch, Mendoza). UCD 34 (Conners 16, Mar 14, Lancaster 3, Squyres). T — 1:33. A — 1,136. Referees — Bill Forrester, John Kinyon.

UPCOMING UH MATCHES

Friday: vs. Cal State Fullerton, 7 p.m.

Oct. 4: vs. UC Irvine, 7 p.m.

Oct. 10: at Cal State Northridge, 4 p.m.

Oct. 11: at Long Beach State, 4 p.m.

Oct. 24: vs. Cal Poly, 7 p.m.

Oct. 26: vs. UC Santa Barbara, 5 p.m.

Oct. 31: at UC Irvine, 4 p.m.

Nov. 1: at Cal State Fullerton, 4 p.m.

Nov. 7: vs. Long Beach State 7 p.m.

Nov. 8: vs Cal State Northridge, 7 p.m.

Nov. 21: at UC Santa Barbara, 5 p.m.

Nov. 22: at Cal Poly, 5 p.m.

Nov. 28: vs. UC Riverside, 8 p.m.

Nov. 29: vs. UC Davis, 8 p.m.