Wahine likely wave good-bye to postseason volleyball

Today was going to be one very long flight home. And it very well could be the last one of this volleyball season for Hawaii.

The Rainbow Wahine, desperately in need of a quality road win, saw an all-too-familiar trend come back to haunt them on Tuesday night in Malibu, Calif.

For the second time in four matches, Hawaii squandered a huge lead in failing to close out a set, a stuck-in-a-bad-rotation morass that eventually led to a costly loss. On Oct. 27 at the Stan Sheriff Center, the Wahine wasted six set points in dropping Set 1 28-26 to UC Santa Barbara; the Gauchos went on to sweep the Wahine, likely ending Hawaii’s shot at the Big West title.

On Tuesday, the Wahine were poised to take Set 3 against Pepperdine, ahead 22-17. Five aces from Heidi Dyer helped the Waves go on an 8-0 roll and flip the set … and eventually the match … their way.

The 25-19, 20-25, 25-22, 18-25, 15-6 nonconference defeat may have popped Hawaii’s on-the-bubble NCAA tournament bid hopes. The Wahine finish the Big West season at home next week with matches against UC Irvine on Thursday and UC Davis on Friday, victories that would have them finish second for a second consecutive season.

It still might not be enough to extend the season.

“We can’t think about that,” Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos said in a postmatch phone call. “Whatever happens, happens. It’s what they (the NCAA selection committee) decide. We’ll just keep playing and play hard, have pride.

“Tonight … that’s been our year. Up, down, up, down. That’s my team. We don’t give up, but if they follow the game plan from the beginning, do their jobs from the beginning, we’re not playing catch-up.”

For Pepperdine coach Scott Wong, it was a big win against his former team. Wong was the associate head coach under Dave Shoji for five seasons, four of which Ah Mow-Santos was an assistant.

“In terms of RPI it’s huge,” Wong said of the Ratings Percentage Index the NCAA uses to rate strength of schedule. “For sure, this win helps us, and if we had lost, it would have hurt.”

“But when you look at the big picture, where we want to grow as a program, this is where we want to go. Sure Hawaii is a little down, but they’re still a strong team that is contending for their conference championship. Pepperdine hadn’t beaten Hawaii since 1997, so this is big.”

The Wahine had won 13 straight in the series and now lead it 31-4. It was Hawaii’s first loss in Firestone Fieldhouse in three visits, the others being victories in 1978 and 1998.

Senior hitter McKenna Granato turned in her 11th double-double (12 kills, 11 digs) but didn’t get enough help from the revolving door of a lineup. Hawaii used all four middles, with freshman Kamalei Krug finding the most success. The Anuenue graduate tied her career high with seven kills on 12 errorless swings and was in on a career-high five blocks playing in the final three sets.

“She did awesome,” Ah Mow-Santos said.

Senior opposite Angel Gaskin added eight kills on 26 swings without an error and junior hitter McKenna Ross also had eight kills and a season-high 11 digs.

Senior libero Tita Akiu added 15 digs, her 23rd match in double digits. Senior setter Faith Ma’afala had her eighth double-double (25 assists, 11 digs).

For the Waves (17-8), junior hitter Hannah Frohling finished with a match-high 18 kills and Dyer added 15. Junior libero Hana Lishman (Punahou) had a match-high 17 digs for Pepperdine, which took a 7-1 lead in Set 5 and never looked back.

Hawaii had just one kill in Set 5, that by Krug to close to 9-4. The Wahine’s other five points came on Waves errors — two service, two hitting and one ball handling.

The Wahine drop to 3-3 in five-setters this season. It was just the second five-setter for the Waves, who lost their West Coast Conference match at Pacific on Saturday, a match Pepperdine led 8-3 in Set 5 only to lose it 21-19.

The Waves improved to 9-1 at home, 4-0 in nonconference matches.