Hawaii plays mini games in practice, the goal being to replicate the stress at the ends of sets, the focus needed and the importance of every point. The most common is where the score is tied at 20-20 with the race to being the first to 25.

The third-ranked Rainbow Warriors lost that game when it counted for real — Sunday night against No. 5 UC Irvine — when they were unable to hold a lead late in Set 3. That swing in the swing set led to Hawaii losing a conference match at the Stan Sheriff Center for the first time in nearly two seasons.

Led by junior opposite Karl Apfelbach’s 24 kills and a serve-receive performance that held Hawaii (9-2, 1-1 Big West) to zero aces, the Anteaters (11-4, 1-1) handed the Warriors a 17-25, 25-18, 25-23, 25-22 defeat in front of a rain-braving 2,534. The 2-hour, 16-minute loss snapped a 14-match home conference winning streak dating back to 2016. It also was the first time in six matches that Hawaii fell to UCI.

“We couldn’t stop a couple of their key players,” junior middle Dalton Solbrig said. “We needed to turn our serving up.

“We win together and lose together. It’s on to the next one.”

Hawaii junior hitter Stijn van Tilburg tied his career high with 27 kills, sophomore opposite Rado Parapunov added 12 kills and senior libero Tui Tuileta had 11 digs for the Warriors.

Hawaii next hosts new Mountain Pacific Sports Federation member Concordia (8-8, 3-3 MPSF) on Friday at 7 p.m. and on Sunday at 5 p.m. The focus for this week’s practices will include having more offensive balance. The Warriors were pin-heavy both nights against the Anteaters, with their outsides taking 89 of the 116 swings.

“There’s a lot to work on,” Hawaii coach Charlie Wade said. “We didn’t quite get it going from the service line. Some guys started missing (13 errors) and others backed off.

“We didn’t give ourselves enough point-scoring chances and (UCI) passed well. They stepped it up from the other night.”

The Anteaters had given up 25 aces in their last three matches — all losses — including 13 to Pepperdine on Feb. 14. The Warriors had eight on Friday when they won in four, their fifth straight victory over UCI.

“I thought our passing and serving was phenomenal tonight,” said Anteater sophomore middle Scott Stadick, who added seven kills with no errors. “Hawaii is a great team. They’re ranked No. 3 and they deserve it.”

The Warriors weren’t feeling like it.

“It would have been nice to get it to five and pull it out,” Warrior junior hitter Brett Rosenmeier said. “We really wanted to come back and beat them again.

“We play those games to 20, but it’s different than when we’re playing each other. At 20-20, you have got to turn it on. We couldn’t pull it off.”

It was a two-point race after UCI tied it at 23 in Set 3. The Anteaters never led until earning set point on a hitting error by Parapunov. UCI needed just one swing at ending it, that coming on Apfelbach’s 16th kill.

UCI won both the block battle (6 to 5.5) and dig war (33 to 31).

“Hawaii is a very good team, and always a good defensive team,” UCI coach David Kniffin said. “We were marginally in-system but enough.

“It’s still early (in the season). It was more about not getting taken out of our game and then seeing how our game matches up with their game.”

Hawaii’s game was on in Set 1 as the Warriors pulled away midway behind the 4-0 serving run of freshman Gage Worsley. The Warriors took advantage of a block and three Anteater errors to take control at 19-13. Van Tilburg had five of his kills and Solbrig, who had one kill on three attempts on Friday, had four kills on five tries.

UCI answered in Set 2, with Hawaii having no answer for Apfelbach. The junior opposite had 11 kills on 12 attempts, hitting an absurd .917, and the Anteaters led from 6-5. UCI did not have a hitting error until its 22nd attempt — Aaron Koubi was blocked by Parapunov and sophomore middle Patrick Gasman — and finished the set hitting .720.

Tied at 14 in Set 4, Hawaii won a video replay challenge that gave the Warriors their penultimate lead at 15-14. A kill by van Tilburg to make it 16-15 would be the last time Hawaii would be ahead and the Anteaters pulled away for good with a 4-0 spurt on a service error by junior setter Joe Worsley, a hitting error by Parapunov, a kill by Koubi and Joel Schneidmiller’s ace.