The preparation is different but not the goal.

Hawaii had no game film to watch when getting ready for its two exhibition matches with Canadian power Alberta. But the Warriors are not flying blindly into the contests with the Golden Bears; the focus continues to be on improving every night out.

“;This gives us a chance to work on our stuff, and hope our stuff is good enough,”; UH junior hitter Joshua Walker said. “;It's sort of like high school, where you didn't have any tape on the other team, you just come in and play hard on your side and hope that you keep getting better so that you win that championship at the end of the year.

“;Looking at the tape (from last week's two losses to UCLA), we know the plays we lost, we know the points we lost, the free balls that no one went for. But we also know that those are things we can fix and it keeps us motivated to keep getting better.”;

The two weeks off between conference play couldn't have come at a better time, Warrior coach Charlie Wade said. Hawaii came into the week a little banged up and with several players slowed by illness.

“;It's allowing us to peel back some layers on what we've been doing, make some adjustments in the middle of the season,”; Wade said. “;We're not 100 percent and it's good that we're playing matches that aren't going to count.

“;What it's going to do is give us a chance to get some of our 'second side' guys like (sophomore middle) Jarrod Lofy and (sophomore setter) Sam Morehouse game experience, rest some of the guys that might need it, and recharge our batteries.”;

Having no tape on Alberta wasn't a big issue for Wade. He said that Golden Bears coach Terry Danyluk didn't want to exchange film but “;it's pretty easy to see who is getting most of their sets, who's big on defense from looking at their stats,”; Wade said.

Alberta, the two-time defending Canadian Interuniversity Sport champion, clinched the conference title last weekend. The third-ranked Golden Bears are using the matches with the Warriors as a tune-up for the Canada West final four March 4-5 and, potentially, the CIS national tournament.

The Canadians are led by 6-foot-7 opposite Thomas Jarmoc (3.26 kpg), who has had 567 kills in his five-year career. (Canadian athletes are allowed five years of eligibility). Setting the Golden Bears is 6-4 Mike DeRocco and anchoring an impressive block is 6-7 middle Simon Lidster (1.51 bps), who had seven stuffs in last Friday's sweep of British Columbia.

Alberta, which started its season Sept. 24, had two wins over Mountain Pacific Sports Federation teams in a mid-October tournament. The Golden Bears swept USC and defeated Pepperdine in four.

“;But that was the preseason and you never know what lineups (USC and Pepperdine) were using,”; Wade said. “;We do know that Alberta is a high-caliber team that blocks well and plays defense well. Teams aren't normally good at both.”;

Although Alberta's matches are played to 25 points in Canada, the matches with Hawaii will be to 30. Wade said that it made no sense to go to the shorter game since the MPSF matches uses the 30-point format.

Those are five more points to get better, Warrior setter Nejc Zemljak said.

“;There's always things to work on,”; he said. “;Until every pass is an assist for a kill, everyone has something to work on.

“;We have the team we want and now we're trying to take it a step higher.”;