Freshman Nikki Taylor went off on Cal State Fullerton on Friday. Her sixth-ranked Hawaii teammates did the same in a strange second set that stood out in their Big West volleyball opener.

The Rainbow Wahine beat the Titans 25-22, 25-5 — yes, five — and 25-20. A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 5,956 saw Hawaii (12-1) win its 10th straight and set a few records in the process.

The five points Fullerton (7-6) scored in the second set a UH rally-scoring record, one fewer than what Boise State managed in 2002.

Libero Ali Longo served 20 of the Wahine points — in a row — to break another record. She also finished with 18 digs — almost half as many as CSUF, which ranks ninth in the country in defense.

"I’ve never seen that, never played in it, never heard of it," Taylor said. "Ali is an amazing server. … That second set really goes to Ali. She was so good at serving she got them out of system. She was amazing at digging, incredible. Nothing hit the floor."

The Wahine went from 2-all to 23-2 in the space of six Taylor kills, two CSUF timeouts and a span of 21 serves when Hawaii never let the ball hit the floor.

"That exposed a whole new problem," CSUF coach Carolyn Zimmerman said. "We couldn’t break their serve no matter what look we took. Again, it was a matter of making adjustments … and in that series of substitutions we subbed our way to one hitter.

"It’s unacceptable on our end to allow Hawaii to score so many points. It started off with five unforced errors from us — that contributed heavily. But Hawaii did a great job. They probably scored 18 clean points."

Taylor, who is 6 feet 3, tied her previous career high of 11 kills in the midst of the madness. She finished with 20, hitting an outrageous .567 over a variety of futile Fullerton blockers.

"She just creates some angles you can’t block or dig and they didn’t match up well," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "At the pins they are pretty small, so she had a field day."

Hawaii setter Mita Uiato found her 30 times, and Taylor was grateful.

"It’s really easy to say ‘Wow you had great night hitting,’ but what could be said is Mita had a great night setting," Taylor figured. "I can’t hit without Mita.

"I told her at the intermission, ‘Thanks — really, thank you.’ "

Taylor’s relentless knockout punches and the head-scratching second set almost erased less-than-stellar performances by the Wahine in Sets 1 and 3.

They let the Titans back into both, in part because Jade Vorster and Emily Hartong never got into the offense.

Shoji did not sound worried.

He attributed Hartong’s hitting struggles to worrying too much about her passing.

As for Vorster, "she just needs to keep driving hard to the middle and Mita will find her," the coach said. "She’ll probably hit .600 Sunday."

Fullerton kept driving despite falling into deep holes in the first and third and suffering such a bad beating in between.

"It was a little uneven in Games 1 and 3," Shoji admitted. "That’s not a bad team, it just had a really bad Game 2. That had a lot to do with Ali’s serving."

The Wahine scored eight of the first 10 points to start the night. The Titans caught them at 17, 18, 20 and 21. Taylor, who was 7-for-10 in the set, scored Hawaii’s next three points. Tai Manu-Olevao, who collected 10 kills and four stuffs, got set point.

UH was up 9-4 in the third. Fullerton caught up at 15 and it was still tied at 19.

A missed serve gave Tayler Higgins, another UH freshman, the serve and she scored four in row. They came on an ace, two Manu-Olevao kills and Hawaii’s eighth stuff of the match, by Kalei Adolpho and Manu-Olevao.

Adolpho’s eighth kill ended it after 90 minutes. Her increased offensive threat — she was set 18 times — also lifted Taylor to her big night.

"Kalei was doing a real good job," Taylor said. "Our middles did a very good job sucking in the middle (blocker), so I only had one (blocker) up most of the time. With one up I can scan through my options when the ball is in the air. Most of the time I thought about it and said, ‘Just pound this.’ "

Notes

Michigan State, ranked 15th, upset top-ranked Penn State in five sets Friday in their Big Ten opener. Tenth-ranked Michigan also was upset, by 13th-ranked Ohio State, and 20th-ranked Purdue was swept by unranked Wisconsin.

In Big West openers, Cal Poly swept UC Irvine 25-22, 25-18, 25-11, and Long Beach State beat UC Santa Barbara in five.

In the Pac-12, 11th-ranked UCLA fell in five to unranked Colorado.