COLLEGE STATION, Texas >> Five years have passed since Hawaii went three matches into a women’s volleyball season without a win.

Even so, the task of bouncing back from a challenging early-season road trip isn’t all that unfamiliar for the Rainbow Wahine returnees.

The Wahine hustled out of Reed Arena on Sunday morning after being swept by No. 25 San Diego 25-18, 25-21, 25-23 to cap an 0-3 stay in the Texas A&M Invitational and began their journey home with a 90-minute drive to Houston.

They faced a similar scenario about 51 weeks earlier when they left Salt Lake City after dropping all three matches in the Utah Classic. They responded by winning nine of their next 10 matches and went on to reclaim the Big West championship and earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

This year’s team returns to Manoa with the program’s first 0-3 start since 2017, Robyn Ah Mow’s first season as head coach, and will look to implement the lessons gleaned from a high-powered tournament when they make their home debut on Thursday.

The Wahine will have a couple of days of practice before taking on Texas State in the Outrigger Volleyball Challenge at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. They’ll meet West Virginia on Friday and UCLA on Sunday.

“Playing at home is so magical,” UH middle blocker Amber Igiede said on her way to the van. “There’s nothing like the Stan Sheriff, so I’m excited.”

After facing two nationally ranked teams in College Station, the Wahine will again be tested in their first appearances at home. Texas State, like Hawaii, received votes in the AVCA preseason poll. West Virginia, led by Hilo’s Reed Sunahara, will make the trip at 2-1 and coming off a four-set loss to No. 20 Penn State. Then there’s the return of UCLA (1-1), which opened the season ranked 12th and stumbled in its opener against Utah State before sweeping Cal Poly on Saturday.

“We’ll still play three really good teams (this week),” Ah Mow said. “It’s the experience and just being able to compete with other teams outside of your conference. We get a lot of learning from all of this. Yeah, it’s three losses, but we told them, ‘hopefully you guys are seeing what we’re capable of doing. We just consistently have to do it.’ ”

There were flashes of the team’s potential in a five-set loss to host Texas A&M and sweeps at the hands of No. 6 Pittsburgh and No. 25 San Diego — and that’s the issue for Ah Mow and the Rainbow Wahine.

“We do great things, but consistency is our number one thing,” Igiede said. “We want to make it a string of great things and not just one great thing and then it becomes up-and-down.”

The Wahine found themselves down — way down — early on Sunday when breakdowns in serve receive and six attack errors contributed to an 11-1 San Diego run to open the match. Breana Edwards’ opening serve dove to the court for an ace and libero Madi Allen capped a nine-point service turn with back-to-back aces.

“I think we all knew that’s too good to be true,” USD associate coach Alfee Reft, a former UH men’s volleyball All-American, said of the lopsided start. “Hawaii’s a good team, we knew that.

“They had a slow start but they responded really well and were playing great defense and finding different shots. We anticipated a tough battle and they did just that.”

A solo block by Igiede seemed to awaken the Wahine in the 10 a.m. (local time) match and UH outscored the Toreros 13-5 to close to within two. Freshman Caylen Alexander came off the bench to contribute five kills in the run, one off an assist from middle Tiffany Westerberg, hitting high off the sizable USD block on most of her attacks.

“Honestly, just swinging away,” Alexander said of her approach. “There were some pretty tall girls so just using the hands and trying anything to get some points.”

USD reclaimed control with a 5-0 run before closing out the set and posted three blocks early in the second set to take a 10-5 lead. Igiede pounded five kills and had a solo block to help the Wahine close to 21-19 before USD again broke away.

UH took its first lead of the morning to start the third set and raced out to a 12-6 lead after an ace from Tayli Ikenaga and a Riley Wagoner kill.

The momentum turned when USD setter Gabby Blossom, the tournament’s MVP, won a joust at the net to save an overpass. The play sparked a 5-0 run, which Blossom ended with an ace. UH went back up 15-11 when the Toreros strung together a six-point run to move ahead. There would be three more ties, the last at 21-21 on Alexander’s third ace of the set. USD scored the next two points and hung on through a UH service error that ended the match.

Igiede led UH with 11 kills in 30 attempts and Alexander finished with 10 kills with one error for a .474 attack percentage and three aces. Setter Kate Lang posted her second double-double of the tournament with 25 assists and 12 digs.

Westerberg was named to the All-Tournament team after posting 25 kills and seven blocks over the weekend.

Grace Frohling, a 6-foot-5 opposite led the Toreros with 10 kills and middle blocker Leyla Blackwell had a hand in all nine USD blocks.

San Diego had a part in all three of the relevant UH skids with sweeps of the Wahine in 2017 and last year in Utah before Sunday’s meeting in College Station.

The Toreros figure to make a jump in the first AVCA poll of the regular season after going 3-0 with a win over No. 6 Pitt. They head to Louisville this week to face the fourth-ranked Cardinals and No. 7 Ohio State.

“They’ve had their sights set on doing some big things this year,” Reft said. “I think this weekend is a big stepping stone for this veteran group knowing they can take on top teams in the country and find success.”