Mahalo for supporting Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Enjoy this free story!
More tempo. More energy. More success.
Much more of everything.
Hawaii was much improved in its spring volleyball exhibition finale on Tuesday over last week’s effort against Minnesota. The Rainbow Wahine found their block late, with 19 stuffs helping them rally past Big 12 champion Kansas 25-20, 20-25, 20-25, 27-25, 15- 11 at the Stan Sheriff Center.
It was a huge lift for Hawaii, which struggled with all phases of its game last Thursday against the Golden Gophers. A small but vocal crowd of 935 saw two-sport standout Emily Maglio carry over the success from Monday’s beach win against Nebraska to the hard court Tuesday, finishing with 14 kills and 10 blocks.
“Emily is unbelievable,” said Hawaii coach Jeff Hall, the associate indoor as well as the head beach coach. “Both programs are so honored to have her because she gives it everything she has. It’s going to be a nice break for her to just do beach the rest of spring.
“It was a nice way to end spring with a win. I liked our attitude, our commitment to riding it out. We have the pieces, we have the talent and tonight we showed the heart and resilience.”
Hawaii appeared done late in Set 4, with Kansas swinging for the match 24-23 and 25-24. The Wahine held both times, tying it twice then using one of McKenna Granato’s match-high 17 kills and one of the Jayhawks’ 37 hitting errors to force a fifth.
Hawaii had 5.5 blocks in Set 5 as it pulled away from a 7-7 tie to a 14-8 lead. Kansas rallied to within 14-11 only to have Maglio end it after 2 hours and 10 minutes on a slide play.
Granato also finished with a double-double (17 kills-12 digs). Libero Savanah Kahakai had 21 of the Wahine’s 68 digs and opposite Casey Castillo had 12 digs.
For Kansas, All-America opposite Kelsie Payne had 16 kills and all-conference hitter Madison Rigdon 13 kills to go with 12 digs. The Jayhawks used four liberos as they looked for a replacement for the graduated Cassie Wait, the Big 12 libero of the year.
“For our first match of spring it was great,” Kansas coach Ray Bechard said. “It was a good experience for our team to play in front of a crowd that appreciates volleyball and against a team that plays hard.
“We equate Hawaii volleyball much like we do Kansas basketball with the tradition and the pride. That’s why it was such a good opportunity for us. Did we play our best? No. Did we learn more about ourselves? Yes. I think we can get better.”
So can Hawaii. But the Wahine know they did improve from last Thursday.
“I thought the girls did a really good job bouncing back,” said setter Norene Iosia, who had three aces and five blocks to go with 38 assists. “After the fourth, everyone on the bench was hyped up.
“We know we can compete with the big conference teams and we were excited for this opportunity. We zoned in on the passing and, once we take care of passing, we can do a lot of things.”
Hall said he was particularly pleased with how the blocking improved after one day of focusing on that skill.
“It changed how (the Jayhawks) were swinging,” he said. “As the night went on, they started roll shotting because they were fearful of it. Blocking is something we’ve been good at for several years. I wouldn’t say it was because we did it for one practice — things just sort of came together, the moons aligned a little bit.”
73