Play every match like it is the last match of the season. That is the mind-set No. 2 Hawaii packed when it left today for Friday’s Big West volleyball opener at No. 3 UC Irvine.

There is an extra sense of urgency, the Rainbow Warriors players say, more like a surgical strike that is precise and focused. Get in, get out, efficiently, with a victory.

It’s particularly true for the Hawaii seniors, who know this is their last shot at a national championship.

“I see it as the last ride,” senior All-America outside hitter Stijn van Tilburg said. “The difference between last year and this? A bigger sense of urgency.

“Our goal is to win the last game of the season, because then you are champions. We view every game as the last game. We want to win every one.”

So far, so good for the 10-0 Warriors, off to their best start since the 1996 team opened the year at 13-0. Hawaii has tied the program record for straight-set victories and is two sets shy of the record for consecutive sets won (32).

Both marks were set in 2017, which also is the last time Hawaii played at UCI. The Warriors won 3-1 at the Bren Events Center, with van Tilburg putting down 19 kills and Hawaii out-blocking the Anteaters 13-9.

But it’s not that history that is on the minds of the Warriors, but rather the most recent history of 2018.

That was when UCI was awarded an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament instead of Hawaii despite the Warriors having a 2-1 edge in head-to-head meetings, including a 3-1 victory over the Anteaters in the Big West tournament semifinals just two days before the tournament field was announced.

“The last time we saw them we thought we were in the (NCAA) tournament because we had just beaten them,” Hawaii senior hitter Brett Rosenmeier said. “You just can’t take anything for granted. Just because we beat them didn’t mean we were going anywhere. We’re definitely more motivated, not taking any matches for granted.

“This basically starts our season right here. These matches are the biggest so far, and maybe the biggest of the season. That it happens to be Irvine … technically they were the ones who kicked us out of the (NCAA) tournament.”

Hawaii has won six of the past seven meetings with UCI, the lone loss coming last year at the Stan Sheriff Center when the teams split in the inaugural Big West season. Both teams will be coming off bye weeks, the Warriors last playing on Feb. 17 and the Anteaters on Feb. 14.

UC Irvine has won its last seven, including two conference matches with UC San Diego, the only Big West team that is not nationally ranked. The Anteaters needed five sets to turn back the Tritons (6-10, 0-3) on Valentine’s Day, 25-19, 25-27, 23-25, 25-14, 16-14, a match that saw freshman opposite Alexandre Nsakanda come off the bench for a career-high 10 kills in the final two sets.

“Last year is last year, this is a new year and a new team,” said van Tilburg, who is 26 kills away from passing Naveh Milo (1,168) for No. 11 on the program’s career kills list. “Of course, yeah, you think about (no at-large berth) a lot, but you think more about winning than the negative part of it.

“These are very big matches, the start of conference. We’re ready to go. I’m excited.”