Hawaii junior Stephanie Ricketts earned a complete-game win and hit her first home run of the season to lead the Rainbow Wahine softball team to a 5-2 win over Utah State tonight.

Ricketts gave up six hits and struck out eight as the Wahine (23-9) opened the Western Athletic Conference season with a win over the Aggies (5-24).

UH snapped a four-game losing streak by beating USU for the 13th consecutive time.

Utah State jumped ahead in the top of the first inning on a home run by shortstop Kelley Kaneshiro. UH answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning. The first three UH hitters reached base and scored on a walk, a single by Alex Aguirre and a fielder’s choice grounder.

The Aggies cut the UH lead to 3-2 in the fifth on Megan McDonald’s first home run of the season.

Ricketts gave herself some breathing room with a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth, just the fourth hit of her UH career. Pinch-hitter Jasey Jensen followed with another homer to left, her first at UH.

The series concludes with a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 4 p.m.