Start strong, finish stronger.

It’s what Hawaii has been focusing on this week, its last before beginning Big West Conference volleyball play. The Rainbow Wahine (4-5), coming off a second-place finish in the Outrigger Resorts Challenge, know that slow starts and slow finishes have cost them more often than not when the match has gone to five — Marquette, UCLA, Brigham Young — and even four — Utah.

That Hawaii finally won a five-setter on Friday when rallying past Baylor was as much a psychological victory as it was on the court. The mental boost carried over to Saturday’s sweep of Nevada and has set the tone for this week’s preparation for two nonconference matches against Northern Arizona (4-5).

It’s the first week that the Wahine aren’t dealing with three different opponents and “I think having the one team helps us work on things … as a team,” junior reserve setter Faith Ma‘afala said. “It’s more about us right now, improving skills.

“We’re under .500, but I don’t think our record defines us as a team. We’ve had a lot of changes in a short amount of time and it’s been a matter of quickly adjusting to that while building a new culture.”

The Wahine players and staff agree on one aspect that can be improved: blocking. The irony is, statistically, Hawaii is 14th nationally and No. 1 in the Big West in blocks (99 total, 2.75 per set).

Much of that is due to the solid middle performances of senior Emily Maglio, the conference leader and 15th nationally with 51.

It’s the right-side blocking, when the Wahine have come up against very effective left-side hitters that has been the problem.

“When I got the (Big West) stats and that we’re tops in blocking I was, no, we kind of suck at blocking,” Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos said. “It’s our right-side blocking and that’s our focus, that and our offense.

“We’re growing as a team. I’ve pretty much cleared the bench and I think we’ve learned that everyone can contribute. As a head coach, you’d like to have a starting lineup, but we’re still looking at things.”

While a couple of positions are still up for grabs — most notably at right-side hitter — one that isn’t is at libero, where senior Savanah Kahakai continues to move her way up the all-time dig list. During last week’s three matches, she passed three All-Americans — Lily Kahumoku, Martina Cincerova and Suzanne Eagye — and is three digs away from passing another — Teee Williams, ranked No. 7 at 1,143 digs.

Kahakai is expected to pass Williams, the two-time national player of the year, early in Friday’s match against NAU. The Lumberjacks went 1-2 in their tournament last week, rebounding from four-set losses to Utah State and Arizona State with a 3-1 victory over Cal State Bakersfield.

NAU, 0-2 against Hawaii, had two named to the all-tournament team in junior hitter Kaylie Jorgenson and freshman opposite Heaven Harris. In the win over the Roadrunners, Jorgenson had a career-high 19 kills and added 12 digs, and Harris had a career-best 16 kills and hit .600.

Note

Saturday’s match will be preceded by the annual alumnae contest at 5 p.m.