Wahine get it done against Gauchos

Pretty? No.

Pretty efficient? Yes.

No. 14 Hawaii got what it wanted in its Big West opener, a road victory at UC Santa Barbara on Friday night. A balanced attack, led by sophomore hitter McKenna Granato (13 kills) and senior opposite Nikki Taylor (11) propelled the Rainbow Wahine to a 25-20, 25-14, 25-19 sweep at the Thunderdome.

Hawaii (8-5, 1-0 Big West) needed just 85 minutes to win its 22nd consecutive conference match dating back to 2014. It also was the Wahine’s sixth straight over the Gauchos (9-5, 0-1).

Hawaii continues its first road trip of the season, driving up the coast to face Cal Poly (7-4, 0-0) today and “we’re going to have to pass a lot better against Cal Poly,” Wahine coach Dave Shoji said. “I thought we played just well enough to control the match. I don’t think we played our best, but we were fairly efficient.

“We went through some struggles on serve-receive, but whenever they made a run, we were able to pull away.”

It wasn’t the UCSB team that Hawaii had expected to see. The Gauchos were without redshirt freshman hitter Lindsey Ruddins, second in the conference with 196 kills and a 4.45 kps average, and No. 17 in the NCAA with 5.0 points per set. Ruddins injured her ankle during practice this week.

Still, UCSB was able to keep it close with tough serving, with four of its six aces coming in Set 1. Hawaii was able to answer with effective serving of its own, an ace by junior middle Emily Maglio highlighting at 6-0 run that gave the Wahine the lead for good at 11-6.

The Gauchos never got closer than three, the last at 22-19. Hawaii closed it out on kills by sophomore middle Casey Castillo and Taylor.

Hawaii cleaned up its serve-receive in Set 2 and got another serving run from Maglio to pull away at 11-5. The Gauchos never really threatened, as Taylor put down her eighth kill and senior hitter Annie Mitchem added two to help the Wahine expand the margin to 22-10.

Shoji continued to tap his bench, and by the time Granato ended it with her eighth kill, 13 of UH’s 14 players had been on the floor.

Castillo had seven kills with no errors in eight swings in the first two sets, her only hitting error coming in the middle of Set 3 when she was blocked, giving the Gauchos what would be their last lead at 12-11. A Gauchos service error tied it at 12 and kills by Granato and Taylor gave the Wahine the lead for good at 14-12.

Hawaii hung onto the two-point margin through 20-18, stringing together four straight points on kills from Maglio and Taylor, and two from Granato. The Gauchos held off one match point but not a second as freshman setter Hannah Juley’s shot went long.

Hawaii outblocked UCSB — the Big West’s top blocking team — 7-4.5. The Gauchos came into the night averaging 2.78 blocks per set, ranked 23rd nationally.

Taylor was in on five blocks for the Wahine and Castillo three.

“Casey had the best match of her career,” Shoji said. “She hit well, blocked well, passed some tough balls. And Granato was good tonight. We’re going to need a little more fire power tomorrow.

“We didn’t block well all night, but when you get seven, those are easy points. And our serving has to be better (4 aces, 9 errors). We were able to take their crowd (a season-high 330) out of the game.”

Junior hitter Chanel Hoffman led UCSB with 10 kills. The Gauchos had six aces and won the dig war 35-30.