"Hawaii Five-0"? That was so last month.
It was Hawaii Five-Oh Saturday night as the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team ran its record against Fresno State to 50-0 at the Stan Sheriff Center.
For the second consecutive Western Athletic Conference home match, Hawaii put on a show of depth and balance in sweeping Fresno State 25-14, 25-16, 25-18 in 70 minutes. With Kanani Danielson leading the way with nine kills, the Wahine (14-1, 4-0 WAC) ran their conference winning streak to 45, the top active one in the country.
And, as 5,412 watched, Hawaii did it with a revamped starting lineup that had freshmen Kalei Adolpho in the middle and Lizzie Blake at libero, and sophomore Emily Hartong moving from middle to right-side hitter.
Why?
Because Wahine coach Dave Shoji could.
"We were real young out there when we lined up to start, but I liked the athleticism of that lineup," Shoji said. "I thought Blake had an outstanding match for her first start. She got more comfortable as the match went on, looked pretty composed out there.
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NEXT: UH faces San Jose State next Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center.
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"And Kalei just needs to be out there. We need her physicalness."
The 6-foot-1 Adolpho put down the first point of the match and was in on two blocks as Hawaii took a 7-0 lead and Fresno State was hitting negative-.500 just 4 minutes into the match. Things didn’t get much better for the Bulldogs (7-7, 2-1), who didn’t get out of negative until late when getting kills from Jaimee-Lee Morrow and Brianna Clarke to close to 24-13.
When the Wahine took a 2-0 lead into the locker room, both teams had used 10 players — Fresno State out of desperation and Hawaii out of luxury.
"We had some young players out there, but the tempo never changed at all, we never missed a beat," said Danielson, who had just one hitting error in 18 swings. "We’re used to mixing things up in practice, so it wasn’t all that different for us and we never missed a beat.
"It could have been really (easy) to let up (after Set 1), but we didn’t. We focused and it was ‘get in and get out.’"
But not before the Wahine used yet another lineup, with senior Chanteal Satele returning to right-side hitter and Hartong to the left. Hartong, who had seven kills with no errors after Set 2, had two quick-attack miscues while adjusting to another position after replacing freshman Jane Croson.
Still, the Bulldogs had no answer or consistency. Trailing 20-12, they did make it interesting when pulling to within 22-15 and 23-17, but Danielson outscored Fresno State 2-1 to end it.
"We watched a different group (on tape) than we saw out there," FSU coach Lauren Netherby-Sewell said of Hawaii’s lineup change. "But it didn’t matter. I wish we could perform better when we come here, but the team is so consumed with self-doubt when we’re here.
"We had five newcomers out there, four of them freshmen, and they were just in awe. I loved playing here (for Nevada) and that’s what I want my players to feel, to love it instead of fearing it."
Korrin Wild finished with 15 kills for the Bulldogs, seven in Set 3. Fresno State, which leads the WAC in aces, had none Saturday while Hawaii had five, including two each by Hartong and Blake.
Croson finished with eight kills in two sets and Hartong eight kills and four blocks when playing two different positions. Junior middle Brittany Hewitt was perfect on all six kill attempts and was in on four of the Wahine’s nine blocks. Adolpho also was in on four blocks in addition to six kills.
