Wahine wear ’em down

With a tenacity that often overwhelmed its volleyball talent Friday, eighth-ranked Hawaii held off Cal State Northridge for the second time in three weeks.

The Rainbow Wahine won their eighth straight Big West match, 22-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-20, behind another big night from Emily Hartong and a timely breakout performance from freshman Tai Manu-Olevao, who was redshirting last time these teams played.

Northridge had two match points against the Wahine (15-2, 8-0 Big West) three weeks ago. UH escaped that night in California. This time the escape came quicker, as the Wahine showed a composure that compensated for the loss of one of their best players and a "sloppiness" that had coach Dave Shoji steaming.

"I think they have magnets in their hands," Shoji said, referring to CSUN’s 18 stuffs. "We hit into the block about 100 times. I’m just not happy with any phase of our game right now, although it was probably our best passing night of the year. That’s about it. We didn’t block, we hit for a poor percentage. We just made a bunch of sloppy plays."

It was Hawaii’s third match without Jane Croson, still suspended indefinitely for breaking team rules. She sat on the UH bench and — along with 5,733 at Stan Sheriff Center — watched Hartong bury 21 kills while her teammates played their supporting roles with more guts than grace.

Manu-Olevao was activated last week to help make up for the loss of Croson, who plays a major part in nearly every phase of Hawaii’s game. Manu-Olevao had three kills in a part-time role on the road, and one more in the first set Friday, which she started.

In the second, she went off early, burying four of the Wahine’s first six kills. She finished the night with 11.

"My teammates work very, very hard to get me that set," Manu-Olevao said. "That’s my motivation — to put it down for them."

More than just the kills, the threat the freshman created gave the Matadors (13-7, 4-4) one more thing to think about. It was one too many for a team whose offense kept disappearing, and has now lost three of its past four.

"We’re a very good serve-block-defensive team," said Northridge coach Jeff Stork. "Obviously tonight 18 blocks is a lot against a very good offensive team. But the thing we need to do better consistently is to put the ball to the floor attacking. That’s probably the biggest difference in tonight’s match — Hawaii was putting the ball to the floor and we weren’t."

CSUN hit just .127 and did not have anyone with more than eight kills. Its greatest attribute was that block and libero Cindy Ortiz, who had a remarkable 31 digs.

The Wahine, with an assist from CSUN, nearly made up for an awful start with five straight points that cut their deficit to 22-21 in the opening set. A missed serve and two stuffs gave the Matadors the game despite an offense that had just one kill in the final 11 serves.

CSUN’s offense went away again in the second half of Set 2, which Hawaii won with Manu-Olevao’s start and a 13-4 closing surge.

"I didn’t know what to expect," Shoji said. "This is a lot different than practice. Tai was nervous out there, but she is so athletic I think she got by. She was attacking the ball at a high point and got a lot of nice, crisp kills."

Manu-Olevao and Hartong each had six kills in Set 2 and the Wahine hitting percentage doubled to .270. Meanwhile, the Matadors’ percentage dropped 170 points, to .111. In the final 19 serves, they had four kills and five hitting errors.

After nine ties in Set 3, the Wahine finally found some separation at 20-16 on Hartong’s 16th and 17th kills and her third stuff. CSUN scored the next two points and, after a UH timeout, Hawaii got its final five kills from middles Jade Vorster and Kalei Adolpho.

That seemed to silence the Matadors’ erratic attack for good. By the time they got their first kill of the fourth set, Hawaii was ahead 12-7 and its advantage never got below four again.

"We’ve got more talent than they do," Shoji said. "They just make you play hard; they play good defense. But in the end we are just bigger. We were supposed to win that match. …We’ve got more talent than they do."