Wahine make quick work of Highlanders

The countdown to 1,200 continues for both Hawaii volleyball coach Dave Shoji and senior All-American Nikki Taylor.

Courtesy of Sunday’s 25-15, 25-6, 25-17 sweep of UC Riverside, Shoji picked up his 1,190th career victory. And Taylor, with eight kills against the Highlanders, pushed her career total to 1,189, tying her with Kenyatta Lovelace for 15th in program history.

But the number that mattered most to both was “one.” As in one step at a time, one win at a time.

“We respect everyone and I think we did really well focusing on that,” said Taylor, who was in on eight of the team’s 14 blocks. “There weren’t any lulls tonight and we kept our foot on the gas pedal.

“The whole team came in and played awesome.”

It was the second consecutive match that Shoji was able to use all 17 of the active players. It also was the second straight contest where the Rainbow Wahine held the opponent to negative hitting.

“Tonight our block was outstanding,” Shoji said. “Riverside is undersized but you still have to be well-formed. I thought it was a big improvement over Friday.

“We’ll need to block well (this) week. It will be a key to whether we win on the road.”

Hawaii (11-4, 4-0) puts its 25-match conference winning streak on the line Thursday at Cal State Northridge (6-10, 2-2). On Saturday, it likely will be a battle of the unbeatens with Hawaii at Long Beach State (10-7, 4-0). The 49ers play at UC Riverside on Wednesday.

“We pride ourselves on being a strong away team,” Taylor added. “We really want to pride ourselves on being a strong team, no matter if we’re home or away.”

As a crowd of 4,152 witnessed Sunday, Hawaii used a strong middle attack against UC Riverside (5-9, 0-2) for most of the 89 minutes. Junior middle Emily Maglio had a match-high nine kills; senior Annie Mitchem had all seven of her kills in the first two sets while in the middle (she played left-side hitter in Set 3) and freshman Natasha Burns added three kills, hitting .750.

Using the 6-foot-3 Mitchem in both positions is likely to continue, Shoji said.

“She’s a middle but we’re not real solid on the left right now,” he said.

The Wahine got eight kills on the left from sophomore McKenna Granato and five from freshman Kirsten Sibley. The Highlanders, with three injured starters remaining home, got five kills each from junior middle Meg Graham and freshman Mickayla Sherman.

While UCR coach Michelle Patton-Coleman used all 13 on the travel roster out of necessity, Shoji was happy to have the luxury of using his entire roster.

“It was a team win,” he said. “As I’ve said before, our players work so hard in practice, it’s nice to reward them with a little bit of playing time.

“I’m glad we were able to get everyone in and they did a nice job. There were a lot of spirited rallies.”

Helping keep the Wahine rallies alive was junior libero Savanah Kahakai, who finished with a match-high 14 digs.

Hawaii’s unforced errors helped keep UCR in good spirits early in Set 1. The Wahine had three service errors and three hitting errors — the Highlanders also had two blocks — in holding onto a 13-12 lead.

Granato’s second kill sparked a 4-0 run and consecutive kills by Maglio helped push it to 23-13. The teams trade points with Mitchem slamming down her second kill on a step-out to end it.

Hawaii more than cleaned up its errors in dominating Set 2. At 5-4, the Wahine went on a 9-0 roll that included three kills and two blocks by Mitchem. Hawaii swapped setters — Tayler Higgins for Norene Iosia — and middles — Burns for Maglio — with no disruption. Granato’s corner shot made it 18-6 and Gianna Guinasso served it out, capping it with her second ace of the 7-0 closing run.

The Wahine continued to have a revolving door in Set 3, using a third setter (junior Kendra Koelsch), a fourth middle (sophomore Casey Castillo) and a fifth hitter (freshman McKenna Ross). It continued to work, albeit it was a little ragged; Hawaii came into Set 3 hitting .349 but hit just .186 in Set 3.

However, it was never in doubt with Hawaii breaking the last of three ties (3-3) on a kill by Burns and a block of Cristina Marietta by Burns and Taylor.

As for Taylor nearing 1,200 kills, “I was surprised she was down on the list,” Shoji said. “She’s started since she was a freshman and I would have thought she would have been further up. But having looked at that list, there’s a lot of really good players and she’ll probably pass a lot of them before she’s done.”

When Taylor reaches 1,200, she’ll become the 15th Wahine to do so. At No. 14 is Jessica Sudduth (1,220). Hawaii’s all-time kill leaders is Kim Willoughby (2,513).

Shoji trails Penn State’s Russ Rose (1,199) by nine wins. Rose is likely to pick up his 1,200 this week when the No. 16 Nittany Lions host No. 2 Minnesota on Wednesday and Rutgers on Saturday.

“We’ve had a lot of good teams and we’ve won a lot of big games,” Shoji said. “It’s really all about the team. It’s not about me.”