Hoping for a little “March Madness” of its own, No. 7 Hawaii is more than ready to put February behind. The Rainbow Warriors nearly went 0-for-February, going 2-6 and dropping six of their last seven.

“It’s been a rough month,” senior libero Kolby Kanetake said as Hawaii (10-7, 5-7) prepared for this week’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball matches with No. 2 BYU. “We’re a little beat up mentally, but we’re ready to bounce back.”

Last year, the Warriors took a No. 1 ranking into Smith Fieldhouse and left after dropping two consecutive matches for the first time during the regular season. It also snapped Hawaii’s 16-match winning streak — “We’re looking for a little revenge,” Kanetake said.

“They’re on a high. Hopefully we can take them down.”

The Cougars (14-2, 10-2) come into Wednesday’s contest at the Stan Sheriff Center having won their past 10. More impressive, BYU hasn’t dropped a set since being swept at current No. 1 Long Beach State on Jan. 23.

The Cougars returned five starters for first-year head coach Shawn Olmstead, who coached the BYU women the previous four seasons. Also back after a two-year church mission is 6-foot-9 sophomore opposite Ben Patch, the 2013 AVCA Newcomer of the Year, MPSF Freshman of the Year and a first-team All-American who started every match as BYU finished second to UC Irvine for the national championship. Also back for BYU is Kamehameha alum and four-year starting libero Jaylen Reyes, son of Tino, a former Warriors assistant and current Hawaii Hilo women’s head coach.

“We played the top team in the nation last week (Long Beach State) and we have another top team this week (preseason No. 1 BYU),” Warriors freshman setter Joe Worsley said. “We’re in the best conference in the country and we understand that it’s going to be like that every week.

“BYU is a big, physical team. We know we played poorly last week and we’ve been in a rut recently. We need to have the same mind-set that we had at the beginning of the season.”

Hawaii opened the year 9-1 and was poised to take over the MPSF lead after downing then-No. 1 UCLA in four on Feb. 5. An emotionally draining five-set loss the next night to the Bruins seemed to follow the Warriors on the road, where they dropped two to current MPSF co-leader Stanford and then split a pair of five-setters at struggling USC.

“This league is very tough, the opponents are very strong, and the competition requires that you be at your best every time,” Hawaii assistant coach Milan Zarkovic said.

Going into the season, the Warriors knew that one of their strengths from last year — a middle attack — would be lacking. A series of circumstances and injuries forced Hawaii to convert two opposites in juniors Hendrik Mol and Iain McKellar to middles.

“I am not trying to give (an excuse),” Zarkovic said. “Our middles are trying very hard but they are competing at this level with boys who have played that position since childhood.”

The lack of success last week led Hawaii to play two freshmen who are true middles in Dalton Solbrig and Nainoa Frank, the latter who made his first career start Friday. But the middle wasn’t the Warriors’ only revolving door: Both setters played, as did five outside hitters.

The only constants against the 49ers were Kanetake and freshman opposite Stijn van Tilburg, both of whom played all seven sets.

Just as winning was contagious, so has been losing. Hawaii — tied for seventh in the MPSF with Cal State Northridge — hopes to turn it around this week.

“It’s another tough team in a tough league,” Frank said. “Honestly, we just have to work harder and bring it to BYU.

“We have to do a better job at controlling our side of the net. We have nothing to lose.”

Note

Hawaii stayed at No. 7 in Monday’s AVCA Division I-II Coaches Top 15. The top seven teams remained unchanged, led by unanimous No. 1 Long Beach State.