Wahine roll Ohio State

Tenth-ranked Hawaii continued to beat on the Big Ten, sweeping 22nd-ranked Ohio State into submission, 25-18, 25-23, 25-14, on Thursday, the opening night of the 24th annual Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic.

A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,162 watched the Rainbow Wahine run their record to 4-0. The much bigger Buckeyes fell to 4-1.

Hawaii is 7-2 against Big Ten opponents the past three-plus seasons, the only losses coming against four-time defending NCAA champion Penn State.

Senior Chanteal Satele led the Wahine with 11 kills and hit .474 in her second straight brilliant match.

“Chanteal, in the last few matches, she’s been getting her set and putting some pace on it,” UH coach Dave Shoji said. “The blockers just can’t get over quick enough. They don’t think her arm is that quick, but it is.”

Freshman Emily Hartong added nine kills, hit .571 and collected five blocks and two aces. Kanani Danielson did not get her first kill until midway through the second set, but finished with seven, hitting .500 without an error the second half of the night.

“It just seemed to work, finally,” Danielson said. “I just got to work with what I get and make the best of it.”

Shoji saw it differently: “She’s not getting the set when it’s a good pass,” he said, “and she’s getting all the sets when it’s bad passes. That’s something we need to address.”

Ohio State got 12 kills from Emily Danks, one of three returning starters. UCLA transfer Mari Hole, whose mother is former Wahine Gunnvor Aase, added 11.

The Buckeyes’ outside-dominant offense was not nearly enough against a Hawaii team that resembled Smurfs against OSU’s 6-foot-and-up lineup. Thursday, the Smurfs stood tall.

“This is probably one of the most frustrating matches of my life,” OSU coach Geoff Carlston said. “I thought our team really disconnected. … We played very individually tonight. That’s something that’s got to change. I thought Hawaii played really inspired defense.

“They served really well — it got them back in the game — which we knew they would do. We practiced against jump serves all week since we saw the Wichita State tape. Our ball control let us down in Game 2, our serving let us down in Game 1 and I think our heart let us down in Game 3.”

Hawaii scored the first four points of the match, then burned every Buckeye comeback. Ohio State

couldn’t stop Satele, who buried five of her six swings. When the Buckeyes did make a move, cutting their deficit to 10-9, they missed seven of their next eight serves to halt their own rally.

Hole took half of OSU’s swings in the opening set and also had five kills, but she was stuffed twice, including on set point, by Brittany Hewitt.

The second set looked like it would follow a reverse script. The Buckeyes scored the first four points and stretched their advantage to 12-6 before Danielson got her first kill of the night. From there, OSU couldn’t touch her.

The three-time All-American crushed six of her last seven swings in Set 2, helping the Wahine catch Ohio State at 19 and reach set point at 24-23. Then a Danielson dig gave Jane Croson a swing to end it.

The freshman popped it high off the block and, as the Buckeyes defenders looked at each other, the ball fell to the floor.

“We came together at the crunch moments,” Danielson said. “We hung in there and grinded it out.”

Somewhere in there, OSU also lost its grip against the Wahine servers. Danielson, Satele and Hewitt each went on three-point service runs in the second-set rally and Croson, Danielson and Hartong found pukas in the passing during the final set.

Hawaii had five aces, with just four errors, to OSU’s one. By the end, the Buckeyes’ offense was in turmoil. Ohio State burned both its timeouts while falling into a 14-7 hole in the final set. Frustration had clearly set in. Balls started dropping and so did players. UH scored nine of the final 14 points.

No. 12 UCLA def. No. 23 Long Beach State, 25-19, 27-25, 21-25, 25-18.

The Bruins (4-0) got 18 kills from Rachael Kidder and five aces from Bojana Todorovic in the tournament’s opening match. Caitlin Ledoux had 18 kills for the 49ers (2-2), with Janisa Johnson getting a double-double (12 kills, 19 digs) and ‘Iolani graduate Lauren Minkel collecting 15 digs.

Hawaii plays LBSU tonight at 7, following the 5 p.m. UCLA-Ohio State match.