If Hawaii wants to make a deep run into the NCAA tournament this season, the sixth-ranked Rainbow Wahine know they need to be a good road team.

That postseason preparation begins Friday with Hawaii facing its biggest Big West rival and biggest obstacle to a conference title in Long Beach State. The teams have played to five in their last three meetings, including the Wahine’s five-set win at the Stan Sheriff Center on Oct. 11.

It’s just the second road trip of the season for Hawaii. The goal is to make sure the road doesn’t hit back.

"Champions aren’t made in areas where they are comfortable," Wahine junior hitter Nikki Taylor said. "Champions are made through adversity. And playing on the road, there’s always some adversity, different gyms, different crowds.

"This road trip is important to show us that we can fight through that adversity. We need to focus on that fire we have, not let our roll stop."

Continuing streak

Hawaii (20-1, 10-0 Big West) has won its last 15 matches, its longest win streak since stringing together 19 straight in 2012. Keeping that rolling has been anything but pretty as the Wahine have struggled with consistency while dealing with a revolving door of lineup changes due to injuries, including ones that kept three starters out at various times.

That was the case in last month’s win over Long Beach State when sophomore setter Kendra Koelsch made her third consecutive start in place of junior Tayler Higgins. The 6-foot-1 Koelsch came up big with a career-high nine blocks, one away from a triple-double when finishing with career highs in assists (41) and digs (13).

Koelsch, who played sparingly in all five sets in last year’s match at Long Beach State, is looking forward to being in The Walter Pyramid some 12 miles north of where she grew up in Huntington Beach, Calif.

"It’s a cool place to play," Koelsch said. "We will definitely have to be prepared, have a good warm-up, stay in our routine.

"We know we don’t have our crowd. We can be really good in our house in front of our fans. This will show if we are a good team when it’s not our house, not our fans, and there is adversity."

Expecting a good crowd

Hawaii expects to have a good-size contingent of fans at Long Beach State Friday as well as at Cal State Northridge on Saturday. The UH men’s volleyball team will be in the area competing in preseason matches at USC, UCLA and Pepperdine, and are expected to make it down Friday for the match against the 49ers.

Hawaii will need every edge it can get. Long Beach State (20-5, 10-2), which won its sixth straight with Wednesday’s sweep at Cal State Fullerton, has a 16-match home win streak in conference play dating back to last season.

"It’s nice to be back playing them again, and nice to be fighting them for the league title again like we used to," said Hawaii coach Dave Shoji, whose previous teams had epic conference battles from 1985-95 and again since 2012. "I think we’re better than when we played there last year and they’re much different than last year.

"I’m excited to get back on the road. We talk about being a good road team but haven’t had enough road matches to show it. We’ve had a great home stand but good teams win on the road. That’s what we’ll try to do. We need to win two."

Tough competition

Saturday Hawaii is at the Matadome where the Wahine have lost on their previous two visits. CSUN (5-18, 4-7) continues to struggle this year, losing at UC Riverside in five on Tuesday.

"Still, they are a dangerous team especially since we’ll have played Friday," Shoji said. "One thing we have to control is (senior hitter Cieana) Stinson, she had 29 (kills) at Riverside. We’ve had trouble at their place but I like that we are playing Long Beach first and then them."

Hawaii, the top blocking team in the country (3.43 bps), returns home Sunday. The Wahine finish out the regular season with four matches in seven days starting Nov. 15 at UC Davis.

NOTE: Making the travel roster for the first time is redshirt freshman middle Natasha Burns who was cleared to fully participate in practice last week. She fractured a bone in her right hand during fall camp.