Wahine pull out a 5-set thriller

Tenth-ranked Hawaii rallied against an old volleyball nemesis, remaining unbeaten with an exhausting 25-17, 21-25, 23-25, 25-19, 15-11 victory over 23rd-ranked Long Beach State on Friday.

The second round of the 24th annual Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic was watched by 5,418 at Stan Sheriff Center.

The Rainbow Wahine (5-0) play 12th-ranked UCLA (5-0) on Sunday at 5 p.m. for the title. The two have won 15 Classic titles between them. The 49ers (2-3) play No. 22 Ohio State (4-2) for third in the 3 p.m. opener.

The Beach, which hasn’t beaten UH in Hawaii since 1993, will be back next season when the Wahine rejoin the Big West. Friday’s sequel to past smackdowns, and prequel to those in the future, was every bit as loud and full of momentum swings as their previous 38 battles.

"The best thing we did was fight when we got down 2-1," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "There was nobody hanging their head. I heard a lot of positive things in the huddle, from the girls, not me necessarily. We have a tendency to get down on ourselves or get down on somebody else and that didn’t happen at all tonight.

"Last night (against OSU) I don’t think we came together as a team even though we won. We had some people off and they were just into themselves, not into the team. So I thought it was a good turnaround. That’s what we need. This win will carry us later on. We can think back and know we fought from down 2-1 against a good team and won."

Both teams struggled with precision, but the Beach won the second and third sets with superior passing and serving.

That changed in the fourth, when UH libero Emily Maeda bounced back to stabilize her team’s passing.

"In Games 4 and 5 she was really good," Shoji said. "That’s another trait our players need to have. They are not always going to play well, but they’ve got to rebound during a match and turn things around."

The 49ers missed three of their first four serves in the final set, which was tied at every point to 5-all. Then freshman Jane Croson served two to put Hawaii ahead. UH stretched its advantage to 10-7 on Kanani Danielson’s 17th kill and LBSU burned its final timeout.

The 49ers scored the next three points to tie it again, but Danielson’s kill gave her the serve and the Beach shanked the next two serves. Brittany Hewitt and Chanteal Satele teamed for Hawaii’s 20th block to make it 14-10. After an LBSU point, Croson buried her 17th kill to end it after 2 hours, 14 minutes.

"It was a typical Hawaii-Long Beach State match," LBSU coach Brian Gimmillaro said. "There were lots of rallies, a lot of good plays. It sets up what we’re going to be seeing in the Big West again."

Hewitt led the country in blocking last year, but came into Friday’s match averaging less than one a set. She had 12 against the Beach, including four solos against 6-foot-6 Haleigh Hampton.

Hampton finished with 12 kills and nine blocks. LBSU got 18 kills from Caitlin Ledoux and 12 more from Janisa Johnson, who also had 17 digs.

Ledoux had 10 hitting errors and Johnson eight, with all eight in the second half of the match. The Beach hit just .170, to UH’s .333, but this match was close from the moment Long Beach got over its first-set meltdown.

Hawaii came into the match averaging a little more than two blocks a set. With the 49ers’ passes flying wild early, UH stuffed six balls in the opening set and Long Beach had more errors (8) than kills (7).

Hawaii scored 10 of the last 12 points, but LBSU came right back, scoring the first four points of the second set. The Wahine caught the Beach at 9, 10 and 14, but could never pull ahead. Their passing simply wasn’t good enough as Johnson served four straight to give LBSU a 22-17 cushion

The 49ers led the entire third set, with the Wahine’s lone surge cutting their deficit from five to one (13-12). Hawaii killed its momentum by missing five serves the rest of the set, including the final point. It missed 15 serves on the night.

The Wahine finally took a lead, at 4-3 in the fourth set. The only time they trailed the rest of the match was 3-4 in the final set.

The long night started with UCLA holding off Ohio State, 25-21, 25-19, 23-25, 25-23, in a match that lasted just more than 2 hours.

The Bruins totally revamped their lineup from Thursday, but were still led by the same players — Lainey Gera collected 27 digs and Rachael Kidder 15 kills.

The Buckeyes (4-2) got 16 kills and seven stuffs from Emily Danks and 11 kills from Mari Hole.

Note

A trio of top-five teams were upset Friday. Third-ranked Southern California dropped to 2-2 when it was swept by unranked Central Florida. Fourth-ranked Texas was also swept, by 11th-ranked Minnesota. Colorado State, No. 15, beat fifth-ranked Nebraska in five.