Treating its final conference road trek as a business trip, Hawaii spoiled Cal State Northridge’s senior night on Friday.

The Rainbow Wahine found success in the middle (a combined 18 kills) and success on the outside in senior McKenna Granato while sweeping the Matadors 25-23, 25-19, 25-20 in a Big West volleyball match in Northridge, Calif.

Granato put down a match-high 12 kills to give her 995 for her career as Hawaii (15-7, 11-2) kept its slim postseason hopes alive by defeating the Matadors for a ninth straight time. Granato gets a shot at becoming the 20th Wahine to reach 1,000 kills with today’s match at Long Beach State (13-12, 5-7).

“It’s kind of hard to have to play two in a row,” Granato said by phone after the 96-minute contest. “But we’ll come out and be ready in the Pyramid (Long Beach State’s arena).”

It was the 15th time this season that Granato turned in double-digit kills. She had just one error in 22 swings, hitting .500., her second-best percentage of the season.

Junior middle Natasha Burns added 10 kills and senior Sarah Liva eight for Hawaii, which remained a half-game back of No. 17 Cal Poly (21-1, 11-1) in the standings. Burns was in on six of the the Wahine’s seven blocks and senior libero Tita Akiu had a match-high 12 digs, her 21st match in double digits.

“I liked that we won in three; winning in three is good for me,” Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos said. “We got our middles involved and the setters settled down. We want more energy, more focus for (the 49ers).”

A season-high crowd of 882 at the Matadome saw CSUN (7-13, 3-10) lose for the seventh time in eight matches. Freshman hitter Nicole Nevarez had 10 kills, while Matadors kill leader Aeryn Owens, ranked 31st in the the country (4.17 kps), was limited to just six, hitting .069.

“She’s definitely been a key person for them,” Granato said. “I think we did a good job on her.”

Perhaps the best job the Wahine did was not folding in Set 1, which happened six days earlier when they were swept by UC Santa Barbara. Hawaii had six swings at ending the set that night, the first at 24-20, but ended up losing 28-26.

On Friday against CSUN, Hawaii led Set 1 by as much as 22-16. Junior setter-hitter Norene Iosia’s first kill gave the Wahine set point at 24-21, but visions of last week against the Gauchos crept in. The Matadors fought off two set points, closing to 24-23, forcing Ah Mow-Santos to call a time out.

“I just told them to play calm,” she said. “Told them, we just need a pass.”

Hawaii got it with senior setter Faith Ma’afala connecting with Iosia to end it.

In Set 2, two aces by freshman defensive specialist Janelle Gong helped put the Wahine up for good at 11-8. At 24-19, Hawaii needed just one chance to end it, with Granato putting down her eighth kill to put Hawaii ahead 2-0.

Set 3 again was tight early. The Matadors saw their biggest lead of the night — 11-8 — vanish behind Gong’s 5-0 serving run. CSUN closed to 22-20, but Hawaii quickly closed it out, using a block, Ma’afala’s second ace and a Matadors hitting error.