Erratic Wahine win

San Francisco provided a few speed bumps, but sixth-ranked Hawaii’s volleyball struggles were mostly self-inflicted in Friday’s erratic 25-14, 27-25, 25-19 victory over the Dons.

Opening night of the 25th annual Hawaiian Airlines Classic was watched by 4,826 at Stan Sheriff Center. The Rainbow Wahine (4-0) could be playing for their 10th Classic title — and first in eight years — tonight against Baylor, which beat 25th-ranked Cal in Friday’s first match.

That upset gave USF (3-2) ideas. The Dons were aided and abetted by a Hawaii team that looked little like the group that upset Stanford five days earlier.

"We played tonight like we practiced all week, not really into it," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "It’s kind of understandable coming off a big win, but there’s no excuse. We need to play better tomorrow night or we’ll get beat."

The Dons were up 12-11 in the opening set before their passing crumbled. Emily Hartong fired up four aces in the set, two in the midst of serving the final seven points.

Freshman Jade Vorster continued her torrid hitting, going an error-free 5-for-9 in the set to help Hawaii score 14 of the final 16 points.

But the Wahine’s early struggles came back to stay in the second, when USF coach Gilad Doron — whose team is battling injuries — started "what I think will be our lineup."

"You can see there is some potential there," said Doron, who just hired former Rainbow Eyal Zimet — his first cousin — as an assistant. "There is some potential there; the thing is we haven’t played together enough."

UH’s Jane Croson, who missed practice with the flu Thursday, sat out the first set, but played the final two. Shoji also inserted Kristiana Tuaniga in the second. The changes did nothing for the Wahine’s focus.

They lost track of USF senior Jocelyn Levig, who went from zero kills in the opening set to eight in the second. Hawaii also lost its passing touch, leaving few options for setter Mita Uiato.

UH’s best attribute turned out to be the Dons’ inability to close. They served into the bottom of the net on their first set point and Croson crushed the second. Croson’s fifth kill gave the Wahine set point and Hartong, who finished with a match-high 14 kills, pounded that.

"Obviously we let the momentum slip away," Doron said, "and we couldn’t get it back."

Transfer Stephanie Hagins got her turn in the middle for UH in the final set, which began badly for the Wahine but was decided by an 11-2 run in the middle.

"I thought USF was like a lot of the Big West teams," Shoji said. "They’re not going to overpower you, but they’ll chip you to death. They just hung around, and we didn’t block well. We just weren’t sharp."

In his team’s defense, Shoji used 15 players. Hawaii Baptist graduate Kayla Kawamura came in to serve and Maui’s Ginger Long saw her first action, getting in on the final kill and block.

"Him using everyone was a good thing. Everyone is working hard," Uiato said. "When it’s close it kind of throws off the momentum a little, but we usually get the momentum back."

Vorster ended up going 12-for-21 for a .524 percentage. Her lone error — only her second of the season — came on a misconnection with Uiato.

Can she keep it up, and can the three other middles catch up? They combined for just five kills and four errors Friday.

"I think Jade will get better," Uiato said. "She just knows where to put it, has great vision … she’s smart about it.

"I tend to listen for my hitters. First it’s the middles and if I can hear them, then I want to get it to them. We need to run our middles. Jade has been the loudest."

Baylor 3, No. 25 Cal 0

In the battle of the Bears, the unranked ones from Waco, Texas, surprised the Golden ones from Berkeley, Calif.

Freshman hitter Thea Munch-Soegaard put down 11 kills to lead Baylor (4-0) to an upset of Cal (1-2), 25-23, 26-24, 25-23. Munch-Soegaard completed a double-double with a team-high 14 digs.

Injury-hampered Cal, playing without its senior libero Robin Rostratter, got nine kills from Joan Caloiaro, who was 8-for-8 to start the match. Senior opposite Correy Johnson, who missed last week’s two matches with a leg injury, came on in Set 3 with five kills on seven swings with no errors.

NO. 6 HAWAII DEF. SAN FRANCISCO 25-14, 27-25, 25-19