The only saving grace for the Hawaii women’s volleyball team after this weekend is the inaugural Big West Conference tournament in three weeks.

The Rainbow Wahine will likely need to win three matches in four days the week of Thanksgiving in Long Beach, Calif., to avoid ending a run of 29 consecutive seasons with an NCAA Tournament appearance following a 25-17, 29-27, 28-26 loss to league-leading UC Santa Barbara on Saturday night.

A SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 6,316 called it an early night after the first-place Gauchos survived three set points in the second set. They responded in the third set after UH rallied from 22-14 down to tie the match five times before a Briana McKnight ace ended the night in less than two hours.

McKnight had a match-high 14 kills and opposite Tasia Farmer added eight kills in 18 swings to lead the Gauchos (23-3, 13-1), who hit .202 to end UH’s string of 15 straight matches holding an opponent to .200 hitting or worse.

“That first set was like high school volleyball,” Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow said. “That’s the same six we were going with since we lost to Santa Barbara. When people ask, I don’t know because I don’t know who is going to show up to the game today. When we made subs our bench came in and the energy picked up. People wanted to be on the court and wanted to play.”

Hawaii (17-7, 10-4), which entered the weekend with an opportunity to get into first place in the conference standings, is now tied for third after suffering its first back-to-back home losses in conference play in 30 years.

UH had a 2-1 lead against Cal Poly before losing in five on Friday night, and then came out flat in the first set Saturday with 10 hitting errors and two service errors.

“I think some players came in (today) dialed and some just didn’t,” Ah Mow said.

Middle Kennedi Evans led Hawaii with 10 kills and was the only UH starter to hit more than .250 in the match.

Hawaii was held to a .139 hitting clip, its worst mark since playing Southern California in the fourth match of the season.

“Like Coach Robyn said, we just have to keep going now,” Evans said. “The tournament is still ahead, we still have two weeks left of games that we’ve got to focus and, definitely, I’m feeling it as a senior that this is the last part of my last season.”

UH fell back into its serving woes of earlier this season, tallying just two aces to 11 service errors.

Junior setter Kate Lang had 36 assists and 16 digs, but once the opening set was one-sided in favor of the visitors, Ah Mow spent the rest of the match searching for combinations off the bench that could find some success.

“We’ve just got to keep rolling. That’s a loss and it is what it is,” Ah Mow said. “I think the wanting to be on the court, you could see. The fans could see there was nothing. No connection between the players, no energy, no life.”

Ah Mow brought senior Kendra Ham and freshman Tali Hakas in for the second set. Hakas finished with eight digs and seven kills and Ham had nine digs and four kills.

The Rainbow Wahine had three set points in the second set but couldn’t close it out. UH led 24-22 when Paula Guersching was stuffed by a triple block.

McKnight’s kill tied the game for a split second before her hitting error gave UH a third match point.

Hawaii served it into the net and fell behind twice at set point. Hakas kept it going with consecutive kills, but McKnight finished it off at 29-27 when her serve hit the top of the net and trickled onto Hawaii’s side for a 2-0 UCSB lead.

“One thing that’s important for me to say before games is to be there for other teammates,” Hakas said. “It doesn’t matter how the points are going. I want to be better for them so they can be better when we’re (in a) tight (match). We’ve got to keep pushing together.”

UH made a run after a timeout in the third set with eight straight points to tie the match at 22-all. Wagoner, who sat out the second set, served seven straight points before a service error put the Gauchos back in front.

Hawaii had match point at 25-24 when Evans was called for a net violation attempting a block that was eventually upheld after a challenge by UH.

UH will play its final two road matches of the regular season this week at UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton.