The road turned into a major road block last week with two losses that not only dropped Hawaii out of the Top 25 for the second time this season but also dropped the Rainbow Wahine’s RPI off the radar in terms of postseason hosting hopes.

Hawaii slid from No. 21 into the netherworld of "receiving votes" with a program-low 17 points in Monday’s AVCA Division I coaches poll.

Although the poll does not recognize rankings below 25, the 17 points basically puts the Rainbow Wahine at No. 31 and behind the two unranked teams they lost to last week: Long Beach State (27th, 40 points) and Cal State Northridge (29th, 21).

More importantly, the RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) has Hawaii at 25, down from the 17 in last week’s initial ranking. The RPI is used by the NCAA selection committee to help seed the postseason tournament, with the top 16 given preference at hosting the first and second rounds.

But ranking and RPI are the least of Hawaii’s worries. Last week’s defeats, particularly Friday’s sweep by the Matadors, exposed a number of weaknesses and, 16 matches in, the big question is: Can those be fixed before the Rainbow Wahine return to the Stan Sheriff Center on Oct. 24 following a bye week?

"I think it’s a good time to be off and regroup," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "We have to re-evaluate the lineup and everything that we’ve been doing.

"Every position is now back up for grabs. No one played well enough to secure a starting spot. Everyone will have to go back in the gym and earn their playing time."

Of the two losses, the straight-set one Friday may have been the more disappointing.

"We never had an answer for them," he said of CSUN. "We got exposed and were never in the match.

"We were not ready for the tough serves and we never got into a rhythm. Our setting can’t be as good as we need it to be if the passing isn’t there."

The poor passing carried over to the next night, when the Wahine were blitzed in Set 1 25-15 by the 49ers. Hawaii rallied and had a chance to win it in four but eventually lost in five.

It was a heated match that saw both coaches given yellow cards (warnings) in Set 4 and "emotions were high," Shoji said. "We sure didn’t get our share of calls. But it’s part of the game.

"I give our players credit. They fought hard after that first game. We probably should have been up 2-1 (after Set 3), but it didn’t happen. Anyone can win in the fifth. We didn’t make the plays."

The lone bright spot, Shoji said, was the play of freshman middle Emily Maglio. The 6-foot-2 Canadian replaced junior Olivia Magill with UH trailing 2-1 in Set 2 after Magill suffered a leg injury and didn’t return.

Maglio finished with five kills, hitting .308, with four block assists and a dig.

"She had been playing well in practice, so it wasn’t a total surprise," Shoji said. "She works hard and everyone loves her. She showed a lot of emotion (Saturday) and that’s the most emotion we’ve seen from her.

"I think what’s disappointing is we thought we had the lineup solidified. We were playing well. We knew it was going to be a challenging road trip for us, but we expected to win both nights and we didn’t. We are hurting right now, but we intend to rebound."

Hawaii returns to the practice gym Tuesday morning. The Rainbow Wahine also are scheduled to fly to Molokai on Saturday and hold a clinic and intrasquad scrimmage at Molokai High School, senior middle Kalei Adolpho’s alma mater.

Magill was scheduled to have her injury evaluated by a doctor Monday. No results were available.