The Hawaii volleyball team went with an inside-out strategy to turn away UC San Diego in three sets on Friday night.

A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 1,553 saw the Rainbow Warriors control the middle first, then feast from the pins and back row to improve to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation with the 25-15, 25-13, 25-21 win.

The Tritons fell to 0-6 and 0-5.

The rematch is Sunday afternoon.

The Warriors’ usual rotation calls for setter Joby Ramos to open either in the front right or back right. This time they turned the rotation, opening with Ramos in the back left and middle blocker Taylor Averill in the front left. That enabled Averill to get three front-row turns to open the match. Averill responded with three blocks and a thunderous kill as the Warriors sped to a 9-5 lead in the first set.

"It was nice to get Taylor off at the start," UH coach Charlie Wade said. "We spun it. We started him at left front. We got him in that first play of the (match). He’s a tough matchup."

Averill is a rare six-rotation player who has experience as a middle, setter and opposite.

"Even when (defenders) are committing on him, he still has such range," Wade said. "He can go either way hard. And he blocks very well. At one point, he had more blocks than kills."

Averill finished with eight kills and seven of UH’s 10 blocks.

"We want to get Taylor the ball," Wade said. "Joby went to him early, and it was thump, thump, thump. You see what happens. Now they have to commit. We’ll even keep setting him when they’re committing. He absolutely can score. It just opens it up so much for the pins. The bics (back-row quick attacks) become more effective."

Opposite Brook Sedore pounded eight kills and hit .375.

Left-side hitter Siki Zarkovic had nine kills, three launched from behind the 3-meter line. Zarkovic also blasted three aces, and put up a set that Sedore hammered.

"I give credit to my hitter," Zarkovic said. "He got the kill for me."

The Tritons were without their best attacker, opposite Johl Awerkamp, who suffered a fractured right thumb during Monday’s practice. The team doctor decided that the injury could not be protected with a brace. Awerkamp, who was fitted for a hard cast, did not make the trip. He will miss at least six weeks of matches.

"You lose a key player, and sometimes it’s more than just that player," said UC San Diego coach Kevin Ring, who shuffled his rotation, moving left-side hitter Nick Iorfino to the opposite spot.

But the Tritons were undone by fickle passing and inconsistent hitting. The Warriors sided out on 14 of 16 UCSD serves in the first set and 11 of 13 in the second.

UH’s goal is to average about eight errors per set. On Friday, the Warriors had 25 errors — 11 on attacks, 10 on serves, two on Tritons aces, two on net violations.

"If you keep the total errors around eight per set, you’ve shown you’re one of the best, if not the best," Wade said. "That’s something we have to get better at."

For one night, at least, the Warriors played with energy — and depth. They used 13 of the 14 active players. Iain McKellar had consecutive kills.

Scott Hartley served three points. Johann Timmer was the server when the Warriors opened the second set with three blocks in a row.

"We did a good job of coming out with energy at the start of the sets and riding it to the end," Sedore said.

Service Aces — UC San Diego 2 (Rudenko, Elie). Hawaii 5 (Zarkovic 3, Holt, Olsen).  Service errors — UC San Diego 12 (Wopat 3, Brunsting 2, Colbert 2, Dempsey 2, Schnitzer, Rudenko, Barber). Hawaii 10 (Ramos 2, Sedore 2, Zarkovic 2, Holt 2, Olsen, Hartley). Assists — UC San Diego 25 (Brunsting 15, Dempsey 10). Hawaii 33 (Ramos 28, Zarkovic 2, Franciskovic 2, Averill). T — 1:29. Officials — Wayne Lee, Dan Hironaka. A — 1,553.