Wahine stumble again

DAVIS, Calif. » After two decades of conference dominance, suddenly Hawaii is everyone’s favorite volleyball homecoming opponent.

The eighth-ranked Rainbow Wahine suffered through a lost Big West weekend, falling to UC Davis 25-21, 25-22, 19-25, 15-25, 15-9 on Saturday.

It was their third loss in four matches — something that hasn’t happened in seven years — and each one has cut deeper, and come in five sets.

First it was UC Santa Barbara at home, then Cal State Northridge beat UH for the first time in history Thursday in a Matadome marathon that went nearly three hours.

Saturday, the Wahine rallied valiantly against the scrappy Aggies, then fell flat when it counted most — again.

"We’re getting exploited, whether it’s our passing or blocking," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "Just about every phase of the game, we’re being exposed.

"Obviously we have to work on our passing. We have to run the middle. It’s more of the same — just executing when we need to execute. We’ve just got to coach harder, teach better."

Davis, in front of a boisterous crowd of 1,309 at its Pavilion, saw an opening and served through it for its biggest win in its Division I history.

"Watching videos of the last few games they played we noticed we could put some pressure on with our serving and they can break down in their passing," said USD coach Jamie Holmes. "When they break down in their passing they don’t run their middle, so we were really just concentrating on (Emily) Hartong and their outsides."

Hartong was unstoppable, hitting .458 with 29 kills and 21 digs.

Her teammates collected 36 kills and hit .121. They looked young and tentative, which is all true, but Hawaii’s passing was simply not good enough to get the Wahine the ball in good position for almost all of 2 hours and 16 minutes.

"We got aced 10 times and that tells the story," Shoji said. "It’s just hard to sideout when you can’t pass the ball."

The Aggies (12-9, 4-4 BWC) outscored UH 18-8 to start the match.

The Wahine (16-4, 5-3) went from bad to mediocre in the second set, then rallied behind Hartong, setter Mita Uiato (55 assists) and libero Ali Longo (15 digs) — all seniors.

They took control by silencing the Aggies’ attack — they hit .089 combined in Sets 3 and 4 — but even Hartong’s brilliance wasn’t enough in the fifth.

Against a team that had lost six five-setters this season and was working with a new lineup, Hawaii gave the momentum back.

They lost the first three points, won the next four, then fell into another passing abyss. Freshman Kendall Frisoli, who had half the Aggies’ 10 aces, served her team to an 8-4 advantage and Hawaii could not come back.

"They came back out with intensity," Holmes said of her team. "We served tough tonight, which we really needed to do. Not being fearful from the service line … that put a lot of pressure on them."

Hawaii scored 12 of the last 18 points in the opening set, which barely got them into the 20s.

It led 9-7 in the second, but Lindsay Dowd’s serving spurred a 5-0 Aggies run at 16-all and the Wahine wouldn’t get within two again.

After allowing consecutive aces to start the third set, they took the lead for good, at 9-6, with Courtney Lelepali serving and Tai Manu-Olevao in the midst of four straight kills.

They owned the fourth set, then went away again, along with their passing.

The opening month of the season, when Hawaii upset top-ranked Texas and took out a series of ranked teams, none of that was happening.

"We played a lot of close matches in the conference last year," Shoji said. "We were fortunate to win them all. This year I knew it would be tougher. We’re in the same situations. We just can’t win that fifth game."

Uiato called it a speed bump — "We’ve got to keep working" — but clearly the Wahine have a lot to overcome as they head home for matches against UC Irvine on Friday and Long Beach State on Saturday.