Welcome back.

In its first home match in 20 days, No. 4 Hawaii put on quite the show Friday night. Led by sophomore opposite Stijn van Tilburg’s 15 kills and .737 hitting percentage, the Rainbow Warriors continued to roll in the Stan Sheriff Center, sweeping No. 10 Pepperdine 25-21, 25-19, 25-11 in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball match.

It was Hawaii’s eighth straight win over the Waves in Honolulu, just one of several streaks to which the Warriors added. The 100-minute contest gave Hawaii 10 wins in a row at home, 14 consecutive dating back to last season, as well as 17 straight sets won.

It was the type of return that senior setter Jennings Franciskovic was hoping would happen. Hawaii’s passing game allowed him multiple options, including allowing him to put down five kills. That dump threat kept Pepperdine’s blockers honest and gave the Warriors hitters one-on-one — sometimes one-on-none — hitting opportunities.

“We did exactly what we wanted to do, (what we have) been working on in practice,” said Franciskovic, helping the Warriors to a .477 hitting night. “It was great to be back with our crowd and thought we played great tonight.”

The biggest beneficiary of Franciskovic’s sets agreed, giving his setter props.

“Jennings gets better and better,” said van Tilburg, who had just one hitting error in 19 attempts. “One of the things he’s doing is dumping more, so the blockers have to commit on him, and leaving us wide open.

“Tonight was electrifying.”

The crowd of 2,803 saw Hawaii (15-2, 6-2 MPSF) amp up its game as the night wore on, while Pepperdine seemed to short-circuit at the end. The Waves (6-6, 4-5) hit just .042 in Set 3, when they fell behind by as much as 17-4.

Hawaii limited one of the country’s top hitters, sophomore David Wieczorek, to just six kills. The outside hitter, who came in averaging nearly four kills a set, had none in Set 1.

Leading Pepperdine was senior middle Michael Penning, who finished with 11 kills, putting down three of the Waves’ seven kills in Set 3.

Senior hitter Kupono Fey added 10 kills for the Warriors, with his one hitting error coming late in Set 3.

“I thought UH played really well tonight, give them credit,” Pepperdine coach Marv Dunphy said. “I’m a little disappointed about Set 3. I didn’t think we responded nearly as well as we needed to.

“And our serving. I don’t mind the serving errors as long as they’re long. But in Set 1, we had three or four go into the net. Who knows what happens if we serve in. I think we need to be better in all phases Sunday.”

The rematch is set for 5 p.m. Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said his team has things to work on in today’s practice.

“We can be better at serving,” he said, although the Warriors had three aces to just two errors. “We gave up some easy points, especially at the end. We know they’ll play better on Sunday and we’ll have to play better as well.

“I thought Jennings was dialed in tonight. He’s so physical, can do stuff that not many players can. When we pass the ball well, he can run the offense. All setters are a lot better when they’re in system.”

The match was expected to be a block-buster of sorts, with the Warriors and Waves ranked 1-2 in the MPSF in blocking. Instead there were a lot of touches off the block, which Hawaii used to its advantage, slowing down the Pepperdine attack. The Warriors’ defense, ranked No. 1 in digs in the MPSF (8.91 per set), continually frustrated the Waves, finishing with a 31-22 edge in digs.

Hawaii finished with five blocks to Pepperdine’s two. The Warriors had been averaging 2.68 blocks per set, the Waves 2.49.

Hawaii established its outside attack early, with van Tilburg and sophomore hitter Brett Rosenmeier combining for 10 kills with just one hitting error in Set 1. The Warriors were finally able to pull away at 22-20 on the Waves’ sixth service error.

A third dump shot by Franciskovic and van Tilburg’s fifth kill gave Hawaii set point at 24-20 and it would end anticlimactically on a net violation by the Waves.

The Warriors ran their consecutive set winning streak to 16 with a convincing victory in Set 2. Hawaii took the lead for good at 8-3 behind a 4-0 serving run from Hendrik Mol. Freshman middle Patrick Gasman slammed back a service overpass, making it 17-12, and Dunphy called his second and last timeout.

Fey’s smart shot off an overpass to the deep left corner expanded the lead to 22-15. Just as in Set 1, the Waves held off one set point but not a second, again having it end on a net violation.

Set 3 was never close, with Hawaii enjoying leads of 6-1, 11-3 and 20-6. Two Warriors hitting errors helped the Waves avoid scoring in single digits and, at 23-11, Hawaii finished it with kill and an ace by freshman opposite Rado Parapunov and a block of Alex Harthalier by Gasman and sophomore setter Joe Worsley.