The circle on the schedule became a target.

After twice watching UC Santa Barbara celebrate victories in last season’s series, Hawaii had highlighted Saturday’s match with the Gauchos at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

The Rainbow Wahine earned a measure of payback and, in the process, reclaimed sole possession of first place in the Big West women’s volleyball race with a four-set victory before a “White Out” night crowd of 5,931.

“It was circled on the calendar,” UH outside hitter Riley Wagoner said. “It’s big game for us and we just have to treat every game like that and perform like we did tonight.”

Wagoner powered the Rainbow Wahine attack with 17 kills and delivered 13 digs on defense in UH’s 25-21, 20-25, 25-18, 25-22 victory.

UH middle blocker Amber Igiede added 13 kills, four blocks and eight digs to help UH (12-6, 9-1 Big West) avenge two losses to the Gauchos last season — including senior night in Manoa — and break a tie atop the Big West standings.

Hawaii, UCSB and Cal Poly entered Saturday’s play atop the conference at 8-1. Cal Poly dropped back with a four-set loss at UC Irvine in the afternoon, creating a duel for the outright lead before the Wahine and Gauchos took the court.

One week after suffering their first loss of the conference season in a four-set battle at Cal Poly, UH again moved ahead of the pack when Kendra Ham, who popped up a career-high 18 digs, put away her lone kill of the night on match point.

“We discussed even though we knew it was a big game coming up, not to do anything extraordinary, not do too much,” Igiede said. “Really play to our strength, which I think really helped us tonight.”

Outside hitter Michelle Ohwobete led the Gauchos (12-8, 8-2) on Saturday with 18 kills, seven coming in the first set, and Tallulah Froley added 14.

UCSB libero Macall Peed had a match-high 20 digs and the Gauchos finished with 67 as a team to 66 for the Wahine. UCSB also had a 10-8 advantage in blocks.

But UH was able to turn defense into offense enough to fend off the Gauchos in a match that took 2 hours and 19 minutes.

UH coach Robyn Ah Mow continually stresses the importance of winning the serve-pass game, and “now it’s becoming a talk in our practices that we need to win the ball-control drill too.”

“If we’re not getting straight-down blocks, then we have to touch balls, which we’re doing. But then we have to put us in system in order to convert and I think they’re doing a better job on that,” Ah Mow said.

Coming off an efficient, 80-minute performance in Friday’s sweep of Cal State Northridge, the UH attack remained hot to start Saturday’s match, with Wagoner and Igiede combining for 11 kills on 23 error-free attempts in the first set.

Wagoner put away three kills, Igiede added two and the duo combined for a block in a 7-2 run that pushed UH ahead 14-10. UCSB closed within two on three occasions, the last at 20-18, but UH converted digs into Igiede kills in transition and another Igiede-Wagoner block put the Wahine back in control.

The play turned ragged late in the second set and a series of six UH errors (four hitting and two serving) in a seven-point span contributed to an 8-1 UCSB run to close the set and even the match.

“I think we just needed to start (the third set) like we did the first set,” Wagoner said of the meeting between sets. “We just let up a title bit and we needed to change our mindset a little and it showed in the third and fourth set.”

UH held UCSB to .088 hitting in the third set and Wagoner put away consecutive kills to trigger a 7-2 surge that gave the Wahine a 22-16 lead on their way to regaining the lead in the match.

Igiede put together a five-point service turn early in the fourth set that gave UH an 8-3 lead and set the tone for the remainder of the match. The 6-foot-3 junior hit the floor twice for digs in a rally that ended with a kill for Tiffany Westerberg, who posted three in the run. UCSB closed to 20-18, but UH inched away again and Ham’s kill ended the match.

UH has a shorter week than usual heading into its next road trip. The Wahine play at UC Riverside on Thursday and at UC Davis two days later.