Greeley comes through

One snap and clear.

It was the mentality that June Jones, the former Hawaii football coach, had when moving past a bad play, a bad game, a bad loss.

Those words came back to life Sunday when the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team rebounded from being swept late Saturday night by No. 25 Arizona State with a ragged-but-entertaining 25-16, 25-17, 23-25, 25-14 victory over San Diego State. A holiday eve announced crowd of 4,554 saw a future star in freshman hitter Kalei Greeley, who put down a match-high 15 kills in her first career start. Two other newcomers finished with 11 kills each in junior transfers Olivia Magill and Keani Passi.

In Sunday’s opener, No. 25 Arizona State turned back Ohio 25-16, 24-26, 26-24, 24-26, 15-8 to claim the championship. MVP Macey Gardner finished with 18 kills and 11 digs to lead the Sun Devils.

It was Greeley’s hitting error that ended Saturday’s match against ASU. She said she replayed it in her mind overnight.

"It is always hard to forget a loss," said Greeley, replacing junior Tai Manu-Olevao, who sat out for religious beliefs. "I was thinking about it all night, but I knew that we had fans looking forward to tonight’s game as our redemption.

"I said to myself, ‘It’s time to move on and look at that next game.’ I was looking forward to the start and was pumped all day."

It translated to a statistical line that was a "pretty incredible first game for a freshman," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said.

Greeley finished hitting .433, with two errors in 30 swings. She wasn’t the only one hitting efficiently — Passi came back from a slow start to hit .391, with just two errors, and Magill had one error, hitting .455.

In fact, Hawaii as a team got off to a very hot start against San Diego State (0-3), with no hitting errors in all of Set 1 (15-0-37). The Wahine didn’t have an error until their 54th attempt, that coming with a 17-9 lead in Set 2.

Even more impressive was freshman Savannah Kahakai, whose court time during the tournament had been in the back row as a defensive specialist and libero. In Set 4, the All-State hitter out of Farrington made an emphatic debut in the front row.

Within six plays, the 5-foot-7 Kahakai had a solo stuff of 6-foot Baylee Little and put down her first kill in giving Hawaii a 20-11 lead. Minutes later, her ace put an exclamation point on the 1-hour, 52-minute match.

"It was fun to see (Kahakai) swinging away," said Magill, who was in on six of the team’s blocks. "I think we all responded well tonight, which is a reflection of how we bounced back from a hard loss.

"I know for me, my connection with (setter Tayler Higgins) was a lot better. If we had gone 0-3, that would have been a huge red flag. We’re 2-1 and will go back and work on skills. There is a lot to improve on."

It’s a short week for Hawaii, which takes Monday off before returning to practice Tuesday. The Wahine host the 27th Hawaiian Airlines Invitational featuring New Mexico, Oregon and St. John’s. The event runs Thursday through Saturday, with UH’s match with St. John’s on Saturday at noon to avoid the 4:30 p.m. kickoff for football.

The one skill the team will work on is serving. Hawaii committed 17 errors, seven in Set 1 alone.

ASU 3, OHIO 2

Some nine months ago, the Sun Devils saw their season ended by BYU in the NCAA tournament’s first round in Honolulu. On Sunday, they left the Sheriff Center with a very different feeling as well as a 3-0 record.

Gardner broke open what had been a tight match with a 7-0 serving run in Set 5 that gave ASU a commanding 9-1 lead. BreElle Bailey added 13 kills and Whitney Follette 12.

The Sun Devils had four players in double-figure digs, led by a match-high 19 from libero Halle Harker. Setter Bianca Arellano added 15 digs to go with 47 assists.

The Bobcats won the block war 15-14, with Shelby Walker in on eight. Ohio also outdug ASU 69-64, led by libero Meredith Ashy’s 18.

Outside hitter Kelly Lamberti finished with a match-high 20 kills and added 17 digs. Jaime Kosiorek had eight aces and 13 kills.

NO. 17 HAWAII DEF. SAN DIEGO STATE 25-16, 25-17, 23-25, 25-14

AZTECS (0-3)

RAINBOW WAHINE (2-1)

Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills plus blocks plus aces). Service Aces — San Diego State 3 (Mathis, Cunningham, Steel). Hawaii 7 (Greeley 3, Guinasso 2, Higgins, Kahakai). Service errors — San Diego State 8 (Mathis 2, Pritchard 2, Brown, Cunningham, Little, Bolden). Hawaii 17 (Greeley 4, Higgins 4, Mendoza 3, Kahakai 3, Long 2, Guinasso). Assists — San Diego State 28 (Mathis 27, Harris). Hawaii 50 (Higgins 43, Koelsch 3, Mendoza 3, Long) . T — 1:53. Officials — Ernest Ho, Dickson Chun. A — 4,554.

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Arizona State: Macey Gardner (MOP); McKenzie "Kizzy" Willey and Bianca Arellano. Hawaii: Kalei Adolpho and Tai Manu-Olevao; Ohio: Kelly Lamberti; San Diego State: Chaiymin Steel.