Wahine suffer another injury while sweeping Riverside

RIVERSIDE, Calif. >> Hawaii won its second volleyball match on its first road trip of the season Saturday, but much like its victory on Friday, it may have come with a price.

In Friday’s triumph over Cal State Fullerton, the Rainbow Wahine lost junior setter Tayler Higgins to an ankle injury, and on Saturday another starter — sophomore outside hitter Kalei Greeley — injured her left knee late in Set 1.

But just like Friday, 10th-ranked Hawaii didn’t miss a beat and defeated UC Riverside 25-17, 25-15, 25-5 in a Big West match at SRC Arena.

The Rainbow Wahine got solid performances from junior opposite Nikki Taylor, who finished with a match-high 14 kills, and senior hitter Tai Manu-Olevao (nine kills, 11 digs). Hawaii’s middles continued to play well, with sophomore Emily Maglio putting down five kills with no errors and five blocks, senior Olivia Magill six kills and junior Annie Mitchem three kills and four blocks when playing only in Set 3.

Sophomore setter Kendra Koelsch also turned in her second consecutive solid performance as Higgins’ replacement with 33 assists and six blocks in her first career start.

Higgins, ranked second in the Big West with 464 assists, injured her ankle after landing on Maglio’s foot after going up for a block.

"We knew we had some depth; I’m glad we do, because obviously people get hurt along the way;" Wahine coach Dave Shoji said. "I’m hoping we get our two starters back next week because we’re going to need them."

Greeley came up limping after knocking down her fourth kill of Set 1 to give the Rainbow Wahine a 21-15 lead. She was able to leave the court on her own power, but sat on the bench the remainder of the night with her knee heavily wrapped. She was replaced by freshman McKenna Granato.

Shoji said he thinks both Higgins’ and Greeley’s injuries are not serious, but sat both of them as a precaution.

"We’re going to wait to get home to get X-rays," said Shoji. "I didn’t want to put either of them into the match to risk more injury."

As it turned out, Shoji didn’t need them Saturday, as Hawaii (14-1, 4-0) was never threatened in recording its fifth consecutive sweep and ninth straight win. The Wahine trailed just twice — 2-1 and 3-2 in Set 2 — in the match and have now won 16 consecutive sets.

"I think this match proves that we have the ability to dig deep and know that regardless who is on the court we can finish strong," said Taylor, half of her kills coming in Set 1.

The Highlanders (6-10, 1-2) hung with Hawaii early in Set 1, but never led. Tied at 3-3, the Rainbow Wahine rolled off 10 of the next 13 points to take a 13-6 lead. UC Riverside made a charge to cut the deficit to three at 15-12, but Hawaii again pulled away, winning eight of the next 11 points. Magill ended the set with a kill to the back line.

After trailing early in Set 2, Hawaii again went on a run to go up 10-5. The Highlanders again proved to be pesky as they cut the deficit to 15-11, only to see Hawaii make another surge to take a commanding 20-13 advantage. Two errors, two cross-court kills by Manu-Olevao and a Magill kill — her sixth of the game — gave Hawaii Set 2.

Set 3 was a rout from the beginning as the Rainbow Wahine built leads of 6-0, 15-1 and 19-5 before tallying the match’s final six points. All 14 on the travel roster played, with freshman hitter Casey Castillo putting down the last two kills to end it after 93 minutes.

With the victory and CSUN’s three-set loss to Cal Poly on Saturday, Hawaii remained alone in first place in the Big West standings heading into Friday’s match at home against the Matadors.

Highlanders coach Michelle Patton-Coleman said Hawaii’s physicality was hard to match.

"Physically, they can go toe-to-toe with other top teams in the nation," she said. "We knew we had to do a few things well to slow them down; and we did in the beginning, but we couldn’t sustain it."

"You never know what’s going to happen on the road," Shoji said. "Sometimes you get ahead and then you relax and the other team comes back. But we didn’t let that happen tonight. The girls had a good attitude about the whole road trip, took everybody seriously and played hard on every point."

Libero Savanah Kahakai recorded a match-high 17 digs. Koelsch finished with 33 assists, just four shy of her career-high 37 set Friday night.

Fabiana Rosas led the Highlanders with 10 kills and also had 10 digs, while Maddie Hubbell added a team-high 12 digs.

BIG WEST VOLLEYBALL

Today

No. 10 Hawaii def. UC Riverside, 25-17, 25-15, 25-5 

No. 24 Long Beach State def. UC Santa Barbara, 18-25, 25-19, 26-24, 25-12 

Cal Poly def. CSUN, 25-14, 25-22, 25-17 

UC Davis def. UC Irvine, 15-25, 25-22, 25-23, 25-14

No. 10 Hawaii def. UC Riverside 25-17, 25-15, 25-5

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 — Hawaii 3 (Manu-Olevao, Taylor, Granato). UCR 1 (Peric). Service errors — Hawaii 3 (Taylor). UCR 4 (Graham, Rosas, Doyle, Urbach). Assists — Hawaii 38 (Koelsch 33, Magill, Manu-Olevao, Taylor, Granato). 

UCR 22 (Doyle 10, Hubbell 5, Pease 4, Alejo 3). T — 1:33. Officials — N/A. A — 472.