Eight matches remaining? Make that eight playoff matches left.

That’s the thinking for No. 8 Hawaii as it heads out for road matches at No. 11 Cal State Northridge this week. Both the Rainbow Warriors (10-9, 5-9) and the Matadors (12-7, 5-7) are battling for the remaining four berths in next month’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball tournament and “there is a sense of urgency,” junior Iain McKellar said.

“Every game has got to be a playoff game.”

Hawaii is hanging on to eighth by percentage points in the MPSF standings with five wins, sandwiched between CSUN and UC Irvine which also have five victories. The Matadors have two fewer losses than the Warriors and the Anteaters have two more.

The teams that have handed Hawaii seven of its last nine losses have already clinched berths in the eight-team MPSF tournament: Long Beach State, Stanford, BYU and UCLA. With that gauntlet done, the Warriors have eight left with the teams currently sixth (UC Santa Barbara), seventh (CSUN), ninth (UC Irvine) and tied for 10th (Cal Baptist).

“No one is thinking it gets easier from here on out,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “All the teams we’re competing against for the last four spots we’re going to play.

“There are way too many permutations that could take place to think about (how many victories are needed for a playoff spot). I think it will come down to the last night of the season as to the seeding and who’s in and who’s out.”

There is no argument that Hawaii needs to start winning now. The Warriors put a four-match win streak on the line Friday at the Matadome, a 53-year-old, 2,000-seat gym not used by the Matadors since their sweep of UC San Diego on Feb. 19.

CSUN has played its last four on the road, swept twice at BYU and then going 2-0 at last week’s Penn State Invitational. The four-set victory over the Nittany Lions snapped what was the longest current win streak in the country at 11 and included the longest set played by an MPSF team this season when the Matadors prevailed 39-37 in Set 2.

“Northridge might not seem that tough of a team compared to who we’ve been playing,” said senior libero Kolby Kanetake, who needs just 10 digs to move to No. 3 on the UH all-time dig list. “But we have to keep in our minds that every night is a battle in the MPSF especially when going on the road. We need to go in there and take care of business.

“We played better the second night against BYU (losing in four last Friday) and we’re more positive knowing that. But obviously there is more stuff we need to work on, being able to maintain that level of consistency. There were times we let them go on runs. If you take away those runs, we probably win that match.”

Hawaii continues to move its playing pieces; both setters played against BYU and McKellar briefly moved back to his natural position at opposite on the second night against the Cougars, more to give freshman Stijn van Tilburg a rest.

“I think physically, the reality is setting in,” Wade said of his freshman Dutch national. “It’s not his fault, he’s a first-year guy who is getting a better sense of how important the offseason strength training is. This is a very physical league.”

Hawaii will see that against CSUN. The Matadors feature 6-foot-10 middle Brian O’Gorman, 6-6 outside hitter Jakub Ciesla (3.62 kps) and 6-4 freshman Dimitar Kalchev (3.05 kps, 39 aces).

Kalchev, from Bulgaria, is the sixth consecutive player who is part of Wade’s personal trivia list.

“The past five teams we’ve seen a guy who wasn’t with that team last year or didn’t play against us last year,” Wade said. “They’ve had big performances and those teams are significantly better this year. The Bulgarian kid is another.”

On the list are UCLA freshman Micah Ma’a, Stanford oft-injured senior James Shaw, USC junior Lucas Yoder, Long Beach State freshman TJ DeFalco, BYU sophomore Ben Patch and CSUN freshman Kalchev.