Rainbow Wahine can’t get past Illinois’ towering front row

SEATTLE >>

It was an all too familiar scenario for Hawaii, starting with being sent to the University of Washington for the fourth time in eight NCAA volleyball postseasons. And just as it happened each previous visit — 2010, 2012, 2014 — the Rainbow Wahine walked out of Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmondson Pavilion, their year done.

Adding to the deja vu Friday night was Hawaii (20-8) falling — again — in five sets for the sixth time in eight defeats. The 25-18, 25-17, 13-25, 24-26, 15-10 loss to Illinois bookended coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos’ inaugural season the same way it began … when Marquette hung on for a 3-2 victory in the Aug. 25 season opener.

“All of those (five-set losses) hurt, but this one hurts more, it being the last game,” said Hawaii senior middle Emily Maglio, who finished with a match-high 18 kills and was in on all four of the team’s blocks. “We fought to the end.

“I got to be part of the end of one era and the start of the next. I got to spend the last year with Dave (Shoji) and then Robyn’s first year. There were adjustments. I don’t know if I was ever pushed so hard at practice.”

The last comment drew laughs from Ah Mow-Santos and the two other Wahine in the post-match press conference who nodded in agreement: senior libero Savanah Kahakai and junior hitter McKenna Granato. Kahakai finished her career with 14 digs, moving her to No. 2 on the program’s all-time digs list at 1,417, one ahead of Elizabeth Ka‘aihue. Granato capped a breakout season with her 11th double-double (15 kills-21 digs), and was one of five Wahine with double-digit digs as Hawaii outdug Illinois 82-67. Sophomore setter Norene Iosia also finished with her 16th double-double (33 assists-11 digs) and junior reserve setter Faith Ma’afala her first with career highs of 29 assists and 14 digs.

“I thought our defense was the big key, the difference in the third and fourth sets,” Kahakai said. “Everyone on the court played lights-out defense.”

But it was not enough to prevent Hawaii from making its earliest exit in the postseason since 1997, when the Wahine were swept out by Loyola Marymount in a first-round match at Long Beach State, ending a streak of 19 years advancing to at least the second round.

It also was not enough to overcome the Big Ten-Big Block of the Fighting Illini (22-10), who outblocked the Wahine 15-4. Ali Bastianelli, a 6-foot-3 junior middle, was in on 10 stuffs, including several that helped thwart Maglio’s effectiveness.

“It goes back to the preparation, the scouting,” Bastianelli said. “We knew they went to Maglio a lot. I think we did a great job, especially at the end.”

Maglio had only two hitting errors through Set 3 but had seven the rest of the way, including two in Set 4 when Illinois erased a 20-16 deficit to tie at 20. Although the Illini didn’t take the set, they did feel that it was when they grabbed the momentum that carried them in Set 5.

Set 5 was tight early, with two lead changes and seven ties, the last at 8-8. Maglio was blocked on consecutive plays during a 4-0 run that put Illinois ahead for good at 12-8.

Illinois’ last match six days ago was a five-set win at Ohio State and “coming off that one, away from home, we weren’t scared tonight,” Jordyn Poulter, a 6-foot-2 junior setter, said.

Hawaii did have Illinois coach Chris Tamas concerned. The move to a modified 6-2 offense using both Iosia and Ma’afala as setters and Iosia as a hitter was one thing there wasn’t much of a scouting report on.

The other was sophomore hitter McKenna Ross replacing junior Casey Castillo on the outside and coming up with nine kills and 13 digs, the latter a career high.

“Hawaii’s a Big Ten-caliber team and they made us earn every single point,” Tamas, in his first year in Champaign, said. “I know they took a few sets to figure out what we were doing and it took us time to figure out what they were doing.

“(After Set 2), we knew they weren’t going away. I told Robyn before the match I didn’t want to play this one. It’s hard to play against friends. She’s done a great job and the future is bright with her.”

Ah Mow-Santos said she was proud of her team for the way they rallied from down 2-0.

“They kept fighting,” she said. “It’s too bad we didn’t start that way, not so tentative. Maybe if we do, it’s a different outcome.

“You look at Ross, who came in as a walk-on DS (defensive specialist). You look at our lineup where, at one point, (we) were’ averaging 5-9 on the outside playing against 6-3. One thing about this team, they were not going to give up. But we did keep having the same speech in the locker room, about playing hard from the beginning.”

Granato finished strong after hitting negative. She had eight of her 15 kills in Set 4, including Hawaii’s final five points. Sophomore middle Natasha Burns added a career-high 13 kills.

Illinois was led by sophomore hitter Jacqueline Quade’s 15 kills, seven of which came in Set 1. Freshman hitter Megan Cooney and sophomore hitter Beth Prince both had 10 kills.

Illinois will face No. 8 seed Washington (25-7) in today’s second-round match. The Huskies swept LIU Brooklyn 25-10, 25-13, 25-18 in Friday’s second match.