Wahine volleyball fired up

It wasn’t as pretty as No. 8 Hawaii would have liked, but it was quick and very efficient.

Even with a backup setter and a backup middle, the Rainbow Wahine hit over .400 for the first time this season in picking up their 10th straight victory Friday night. The number of the night was 14: junior hitter Nikki Taylor matched her uniform number with 14 kills, sophomore libero Savanah Kahakai had 14 digs and Hawaii — the top blocking team in the country — had 14 blocks in the 25-19, 25-16, 25-16 sweep of CSUN in Big West volleyball.

A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 5,560 saw senior Tai Manu-Olevao add 10 kills and sophomore Kalei Greeley come back from a left knee sprain suffered on Oct. 3 to hit a career-high .692 with nine kills on 13 swings with no errors during the 90 minutes. The second number of the night was 15: Hawaii’s win total as well as 15 consecutive sets in conference play holding opponents under 21 points.

With sophomore Kendra Koelsch making her second career start in place of junior setter Tayler Higgins (sprained left ankle), the Rainbow Wahine are 15-1 and 5-0 in the Big West heading into Sunday’s 5 p.m. showdown with rival Long Beach State (14-4, 4-1), a battle of the conference’s top two.

"I was a little nervous at the start," said Koelsch, whose parents flew in from California to watch for the first time this season. "But I knew my team was behind me; they picked me up and that helped me the most.

"They weren’t the best team in our league, but we still need to do the little things, keep the serves in. We started picking up the tips, but we need to keep making those plays."

Koelsch finished with a career-best 40 assists with four block assists. Senior middle Olivia Magill, ranked ninth in the country in blocking, was in on a match-high eight and Taylor in on four.

Junior transfer Annie Mitchem, making her second career start, added six with three blocks. She replaced sophomore middle Emily Maglio, who rolled her ankle earlier in the week and "being able to have Mitchem … not a bad third middle," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said of the two-time two-year-college player of the year. "Maglio could have played, but we decided not to use her.

"Greeley was a little banged up but played through it, had some pop on the ball. We do have depth and I thought Kendra continued to do a nice job. But we didn’t play particularly well, we weren’t sharp on ball control, had to do a lot of high outside hitting, which is not what we want to do.

"We’ll have to play better Sunday."

Hawaii held CSUN (4-13, 3-2) to .102 hitting. Cieana Stinson and Aeryn Owens led the Matadors with nine kills.

CSUN never quite recovered from the confusion that delayed the start of Set 1, the Matadors receiving a yellow-card warning for a delay of game when trying to figure out their lineup. Hawaii opened up leads of 5-1 and 10-7 only to fall behind twice, the last at 13-12.

The Wahine got a spark from an unexpected place: an apparent dig by Kahakai that was ruled down, narrowing their lead to 16-15. A booming kill by Taylor and a howitzer of a line shot by Manu-Olevao jumpstarted a 5-0 run and Hawaii continued its streak of holding conference opponents under 21 points in a set.

Not only did the Wahine add to their U-21 score in Set 2 but also remained unbeaten on the season in the second set (16-0). Hawaii took control at 10-9 behind an 8-0 serving run by Manu-Olevao, the final two points coming on kills by Taylor off sets by Kahakai.

Keeping the Matadors in the set were five service errors by the Wahine, the fifth delaying the inevitable by a point at 24-16. Hawaii more than made up for it with five blocks, with Koelsch and Magill in on three each.

The Set 3 letdown came late with the Wahine leading 19-11. The Matadors scored four straight, including their only ace of the night, in closing to 19-14 and forcing Shoji to call his only timeout.

Hawaii answered with a kill by Manu-Olevao and an ace by sophomore defensive specialist Gianna Guinasso to close it out on a 6-2 run. All 12 available players saw time, including freshman hitter Casey Castillo, in for the final two points and in on Hawaii’s final block.

"It’s so nice to know that we have a backup for every player," Manu-Olevao said. "It’s really awesome and there’s no worries about it.

"Tonight we weren’t staying focused enough, were getting complacent, maybe too comfortable. That’s something we need to work on."

Hitting over .400

The last time Hawaii hit over .400 was when it hit .405 against Cal Poly on Oct. 12, 2013. … The only team to score 20 points on the Wahine in Big West play was Cal Poly in the first set of a 25-20 25-12, 25-19 win on Sept. 26. … Hawaii has won 21 straight sets since dropping Set 1 in a 3-1 win over Cal State Bakersfield on Sept. 18.

Tuesday

Long Beach State def. UC Riverside, 25-20, 25-20, 25-17

Thursday

UC Davis def. UC Santa Barbara, 25-21, 25-10, 25-10

Cal Poly def. UC Irvine, 25-17, 25-11, 25-17

Friday

Hawaii def. CSUN, 25-19, 25-16, 25-16 

Saturday

UC Santa Barbara at Cal Poly

CSU Fullerton at UC Davis

UC Riverside at UC Irvine

Sunday

Long Beach State at Hawaii, 5 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center

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 — CSUN 1 (Hess). Hawaii 2 (Taylor, Guinasso). Service errors — CSUN 8 (Indermill 3, Leiphardt 2, Dragovic 2, Hess). Hawaii 10 (Taylor 4, Manu-Olevao 2, Koelsch, Kahakai, Ponce, Granato). Assists — CSUN 27 (Leiphardt 14, Indermill 11, Casino 2). Hawaii 43 (Koelsch 40, Kahakai 3). T — 1:30. Officials — Jesse Martinez, Ernie Ho. A — 5,560.