Pass-happy Wahine sweep UCSB

SANTA BARBARA » Hawaii put together two efficient sets in sweeping UC Santa Barbara in a Big West volleyball match Saturday night at the Thunderdome.

The No. 8-ranked Rainbow Wahine were on the money with their passing and dominated the Gauchos 25-13, 25-16, 25-21 to improve to 7-0 in the Big West and 14-2 overall.

Opposite hitter Emily Hartong led the way with 16 kills and a .341 hitting percentage. Middles Kalei Adolpho (six kills, two solo blocks, five assists) and Jade Vorster (five kills, five assists) also played well.

Holding an opponent under 20 points in two sets on its home court pleased Hartong.

"That felt good," she said. "I thought we did a real good job of coming out right away."

The Rainbow Wahine’s pinpoint passing made it easy for setter Mita Uiato to dish anywhere she wanted. She finished with 28 assists.

"I think our passers really stepped up," she said. "Aly (Longo) did a real good job and made our other passers feel really comfortable."

"Our passing is something we work on every day and something that’s not always there, but tonight it was," said coach Dave Shoji, who was back at his alma mater. "Ashley Kastl has been given more of a role as a passer and she’s done really well the last two nights."

Shoji wanted to see a better effort from his team in the third set against UCSB (9-11, 2-3). The Rainbow Wahine lost the third set during a four-set win at Cal Poly on Friday.

"We wanted to see if we could close it off," Shoji said. "We won the same way last night and then we let Game 3 get away. So, tonight, I felt it was important for us to come out and make a statement in Game 3."

A kill by Vorster in the middle gave Hawaii a 5-2 lead. The Rainbow Wahine then got a couple of kills from Hartong and another by Vorster during a 4-0 run to build a 12-6 advantage.

Adolpho took over at the net as a blocker, posting two solos and combining with Tai Manu-Olevau for another rejection to increase the lead to 18-11.

"Our blocking hasn’t been as good as it should be, but tonight we did a good job of executing," said Hartong.

The Rainbow Wahine appeared to be on their way to holding UCSB below 20 points in the third set, but the Gauchos were able to avoid the embarrassment by blocking for a point and scoring on a couple of errors and a kill by Jaylen Villanueva to make it 23-20. They got one more point before a Vorster block finished the match.

UCSB was led by Leah Sully with 10 kills and Kara Sherrard with eight. The Gauchos were held to a team hitting percentage of .058. Punahou alumna Ali Santi had 25 assists.

"Our offense wasn’t very good tonight," said UCSB coach Kathy Gregory. "We’re going to need to pick up the overall tempo of our game and work on our right-side defense."

The Rainbow Wahine came out on fire and jumped all over UCSB in the first two sets. They went on a 7-0 run to open up an 18-8 lead in the first set as Uiato ran a finely tuned attack and fed her hitters mouth-watering sets. Hartong hit .500 and the team .323. Hawaii was so efficient it converted on 13 of 14 sideout opportunities.

The second set was closer until Hawaii went on a 5-0 run to open a 20-14 lead. The highlight of the run was a sweet one-handed set by Uiato in the middle that Adolpho put away.

"I’ve been kind of practicing it," Uiato said. "It doesn’t work sometimes, but tonight it worked well."

Of Uiato’s efficient play, Shoji said, "Our setter can be like that and she needs to be like that for us to be good."

They were good on Saturday night.