Aloha means goodbye … maybe.

As No. 4 Hawaii celebrated four seniors when extending its school-record home winning streak to 21 on Saturday night, the Rainbow Warriors also moved closer to booking a return trip to the Stan Sheriff Center for a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball tournament quarterfinal on April 15.

There are several scenarios over the final two weeks of MPSF competition that would keep Hawaii home for the second time in three seasons — as well as where the Warriors are seeded — including the outcome of UH’s final two regular-season matches at UCLA following this upcoming bye week.

Hawaii could finish anyway from third to fifth.

But that is for another day. On Saturday, as a season-high 4,752 watched, the focus was on what Hawaii does best and like no where else.

Senior night, where Hawaii (22-4, 12-4 MPSF) handed No. 14 Cal State Northridge (12-14, 5-12) its eighth consecutive loss, the 25-19, 25-17, 19-25, 25-17 match took 2 hours and 16 minutes.

Senior night, where the festivities lasted almost as long, the amount of lei rivaling that at any island graduation.

There was a ha’a koa (warrior dance) performed by the relatives of senior hitter Kupono Fey, his introduction including the pu of a conch shell.

There was the entire Warrior team, bare-chested after removing shirts, to do a ha’a, the one taught to them by Judge Tommy Kaulukukui during preseason camp.

Senior night, where two of the seniors were wrapped in the flags of their respective countries: opposite Iain McKellar from England, who made his first start of the season, and middle Hendrik Mol of Norway, who had nine kills with just one error, and four blocks.

Senior night, where about the only thing that went wrong was the Warriors dropping a set at home for the first time since Feb. 4 when UC Santa Barbara won Set 2, a string of 25 straight sets.

Still, Hawaii finished the regular season 17-0 at the Sheriff Center the first perfect home record since going 8-0 in 1988 in Klum Gym.

“The crowd was unreal tonight,” said senior setter Jennings Franciskovic, in on five of the team’s 12 blocks, including three solo. “We’ve been on a roll in the Stan Sheriff Center. It’s bound to happen (dropping a set) and it gives us motivation the rest of the season.”

It was a career high in kills for Brett Rosenmeier, 10 coming in the first two sets.

“It was so important for us to win it for the seniors,” he said. “It was their night and I shouldn’t be the one getting the most kills. Glad that I could do the best we could.

“I think we came out a little flat (in Set 3), got down early and hard to come back from that.”

Set 3 saw the Warriors trail the whole way, going down by as many as 8-1 and 19-12. Hawaii picked up a little momentum at the end when closing to 22-17, holding off two set points, but running out of room.

The Warriors came back in Set 4, ready to get the party started. A kill by Rosenmeier put Hawaii ahead for good at 3-2 and 16th made it 17-10.

Mol put down his ninth kill, giving Hawaii match point at 24-15. It ended aptly enough on Fey’s final swing.

“It was a really exciting night,” Fey said. “Maybe it took longer than needed but it was a really good win for us.”

Junior opposite Arvis Greene led the Matadors with 15 kills and sophomore hitter Dimiter Kalchev added 12. Kalchev, whose serve has been clocked at 70-plus mph, added two aces.

Libero Tui Tuileta had 11 of Hawaii’s 35 digs. His CSUN counterpart, CJ Suarez, had 15 of his team’s 31 digs.

Note

Courtesy of Long Beach State’s 25-21, 25-22, 25-21 sweep of host Brigham Young Saturday, the 49ers appear to have clinched the overall top seed and, barring an upset in the quarterfinal, will host the semis and championship at The Walter Pyramid. If the 49ers and Cougars were to finish tied in the standings, Long Beach State has the tiebreaker over BYU.

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