“Protect the Box” is Hawaii’s mantra when playing at the Ching Complex beach volleyball courts. The sixth-ranked Rainbow Wahine couldn’t quite do it Friday against No. 2 Pepperdine, losing their dual with the Waves 3-2 for a second time in 10 days.

It was the same score as the March 29 defeat at Zuma Beach, Calif. — only this time the SandBows picked up the point at Flight 4 and lost one at Flight 5. The latter was a double loss; freshman Norene Iosia left the team two days ago to concentrate on indoor volleyball, leaving Hannah Zalopany with a new partner (Amy Ozee), little practice time and a fairly predictable outcome.

Iosia and Zalopany were 10-3 coming into this week.

“It’s super disappointing with her quitting,” said Hawaii coach Jeff Hall, who also had senior Annie Mitchem leave earlier in the week. “But it’s part of the deal when sharing athletes and indoor trumps sand. It is what it is. Mags (Emily Maglio) didn’t practice one second of sand this week (with indoor practice Monday through Thursday) and to beat a team like Pepperdine you have to have everything going right, practicing as much as possible.

“But no excuses. We’re super close (to beating Pepperdine). Our 4 (Carly Kan-Ari Homayun) stepped up and now we have to fix our 5. The good thing is we get another chance tomorrow.”

Hawaii (19-5) meets Pepperdine (17-1) today in a match that starts at 4 p.m. The TV portion on OC Sports starts at 7 p.m.

Also Friday, the SandBows and Waves both beat Cal Poly (10-14), the Waves winning 5-0 and Hawaii 4-1. Round-robin play continues today with Hawaii-Cal Poly at 10 a.m., the first of four duals.

According to Kan, Friday’s 18-21, 24-22, 15-12 victory over Pepperdine’s Anika Wilson and Deanna Kraft was “a turning point.” She and Homayun lost ugly to Wilson-Kraft last week, 21-11, 21-19.

“It brings even more confidence for us,” said Kan, who completed a much-decorated four-year indoor career at Missouri last December. “This proves how the hard work we’ve put into it is paying off.

“We always play really well at home, wanted to defend ‘The Box.’ We didn’t want them to beat us in our home territory.”

The 5-foot-9 Kan was good late in Sets 2 and 3, even creating problems against the 6-foot Kraft.

“Six-foot is nothing, I’ve hit over bigger,” Kan said.

In Set 2 her kill held off one match point, tying it at 21, then she added a block and a kill to gain set point. In Set 3, a kill put Hawaii ahead for good at 13-12 and Kan served it out with kills by Homayun then Kan capping the comeback.

“We stayed really confident in our ability to score points and make plays,” Homayun said. “I think it helped a lot that we trusted we could make the plays. You know the other team is going to make plays, but we just have to make the better plays.”

Homayun acknowledged the departure of Iosia, saying, “That was interesting. But we’ve faced more adversity in our lives.”

After tonight’s dual with Pepperdine, Hawaii will honor four seniors: Mikayla Tucker, Nikki Taylor, Sydney Shinn and Tayler Higgins.

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