Perfection in the Big West for Wahine

Santa Barbara, Calif. >> Hawaii completed an undefeated Big West season with a 25-16, 25-21, 25-19 sweep of UC Santa Barbara on Saturday at the Thunderdome. Now the No. 8 Rainbow Wahine return home from their longest road trip to rest up and begin preparing for the NCAA Tournament.

Outside hitter Nikki Taylor is definitely looking forward to the week off.

"This week will be healing our injured, which we have plenty, and getting back into the groove of school," she said after an 11-kill performance against the Gauchos. "It’s going to be a great off week for us. I’m very much looking forward to it."

It’s well deserved after going 16-0 in the Big West.

"I told the team anytime you win 16 straight matches like that it’s a pretty good accomplishment," coach Dave Shoji said. "It would seem like one night you wouldn’t have your best stuff, but our girls really focused and managed to win 16 in a row. That’s pretty amazing to me."

The Wahine (26-1) lost a little bit of focus in the second set, as a 20-9 lead dwindled to 20-14. That brought Shoji off the bench with a look of frustration. He called a timeout, but the team continued to struggle when they returned to the court and the lead dropped to 23-21.

"We just stopped working hard on passing," Shoji said. "We stopped moving our feet, and whenever we do that we give up points. That was frustrating. It wasn’t the subs that played poorly; it was our starters didn’t work hard enough. Sometimes when you sub everybody relaxes and thinks the game is over. We were ahead, but we have to keep working."

Hawaii regained its form after a second timeout. Taylor buried a ball down the line and Emily Maglio and Kendra Koelsch combined on a block to finish off the set.

The Wahine had a balanced attack, with Taylor leading the way with 11 kills. Maglio put away 10 balls on a blistering .769 hitting percentage and Olivia Magill added nine kills on .600 hitting. Hawaii hit a robust .322.

UCSB didn’t have any hitters in double figures. Jaylen Villanueva led the Gauchos (7-19, 3-12 in Big West) with seven kills. The Gauchos were limited to an .074 hitting average.

Taylor was a little surprised by Hawaii’s perfect record in conference.

"We were expecting a little bit more of a challenge — not to say the games we played weren’t challenges, because they were a times," she said. "We are so proud of ourselves. We fought really hard through the season to get the undefeated title. It feels really great, especially knowing we worked really hard for it."

Now comes the postseason and chasing and the dream of bringing home the first NCAA title since 1987.

"We’re all really excited. This is the part of the season we look most forward to, we train the hardest for," Taylor said. "This is what the (regular) season prepares us for. We’re anxious to go on to the postseason."

Said Shoji: "I like our chances to win a couple of games in the playoffs and see if we can get to a regional. Every match is going to be tough. First off, we’re going to go home and rest up, get healthier but we still have to work hard in practice."

Shoji is hoping to host some early-round matches, but he’s not counting on it because the team’s RPI isn’t high enough. "We’ll just go where they send us."

For the next week and a half, they’ll enjoy the time off.

Big West Volleyball

SATURDAY

Long Beach State def. UC Riverside, 25-19, 25-17, 25-15

UC Davis def. UC Irvine, 25-23, 16-25, 25-18, 15-25, 15-9

Hawaii def. UC Santa Barbara, 25-16, 25-21, 25-19

CSUN def. Cal State Fullerton, 23-25, 23-25, 26-24, 25-23, 17-15

NO. 7 HAWAII DEF. UC SANTA BARBARA, 25-16, 25-21, 25-19 

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 1 (Taylor). UC Santa Barbara 5 (Rottman 4, Joos). Service errors — Hawaii 7 (Taylor 3, Higgins, Greeley, Kahakai, Guinasso). UC Santa Barbara 5 (Sheffield 2, Nielson, Villanueva, Rottman). Assists — Hawaii 38 (Higgins 33, Koelsch 2, Manu-Olevao, Greeley, Kahakai). UC Santa Barbara 28 (Hasselmann 13, Nielson 10, Taylor 2, Petrachi 2, Joos). 

T — 1:33. Officials — Robert Okamura, John Kinyon. A — 477.