Wahine make it 6 straight

Confidence wore No. 2 Friday night at the Stan Sheriff Center, as Kendra Koelsch stepped back to serve aloha ball against Cal State Fullerton. Hawaii’s reserve freshman setter knew what she wanted to do and actually had voiced her intent to her teammates.

"I’m going to ace them," Koelsch said.

The bold prediction turned into a bold finishing statement as Koelsch’s first career ace sealed the 25-18, 25-19, 25-15 Big West volleyball victory for No. 24 Hawaii. The Rainbow Wahine (11-3, 3-0 Big West) sent 4,426 home after 86 minutes with their sixth win and fifth sweep in a row, running their streak of sets won to 18.

Reigning conference freshman of the week Kalei Greeley finished with team highs of 10 kills and four aces, the latter a career high for the young outside hitter. Junior hitter Tai Manu-Olevao added nine kills and senior middle Kalei Adolpho was in on five blocks, tying her career high of three solo, as all 15 available Wahine players saw the court.

The AYSO night against the Titans (6-10, 0-3) was given a grade of "B" by both Koelsch and reserve freshman middle Emily Maglio, who put down a kill late in Set 3.

"I thought we played really good overall, so maybe a B-plus," said Koelsch, who played briefly in all three sets. "Our team needs to keep improving. We’re already focusing on UC Irvine."

Hawaii finishes its first conference homestand Saturday against the Anteaters (10-6, 0-2). UCI will present different problems than Fullerton did, Wahine coach Dave Shoji said.

"We’ll have to block well on the pins (the outside hitters). They have three very good hitters. They average over 14 kills a set, and we’ll be challenged," Shoji said. "Our passing was a concern the whole night.

"We had a horrendous start but put some things together. And it was nice to be able to get everyone in. The group we might call the ‘B Team’ had a great week of practice and we wanted to reward them."

It didn’t appear that Hawaii would have that luxury early in Set 1, with shaky passing helping Fullerton to a 7-1 lead. The Wahine chipped away at the deficit and, at 11-7, senior libero Sarah Mendoza went off from the service line.

It wasn’t quite as impressive as last year’s record-setting run by then-senior libero Ali Longo, who served for 20 straight against the Titans, but Mendoza camped out for eight straight. When the smoke cleared, Adolpho had padded her blocking stats with a solo and an assist block, and the Wahine led 15-11.

Hawaii put Fullerton away with another serving run, this time by sophomore Nikki Taylor that put the Wahine up 20-12. Sophomore setter Tayler Higgins’ dump shot made it 23-15 and she found junior middle Olivia Magill for two kills to finish it off.

Hawaii pretty much controlled the rest of the way, limiting Titans freshman hitter Niki Withers to four kills. She had come in averaging 3.91 a set.

"I thought for a moment there we made Hawaii pretty uncomfortable in their home arena," Titans coach Carolyn Zimmerman said. "Hawaii goes on that nine-point run and it was hard to recover from that.

"Hawaii didn’t do anything we weren’t expecting. They have new faces, got the pickup from U of A (Arizona junior transfer Magill). Hawaii is balanced and no one has to overplay."

If there is a concern it was the limited swings by Magill (four kills on eight attempts), who came in leading the team in kills. Some of that was Fullerton stacking the block in the middle and the Titans’ tough serving that didn’t allow for the middle attack option.

"We need to set Magill as much as we can," Shoji said.

Holland Crenshaw led the Titans with seven kills. Mackenzie Olsen finished with three of the team’s four aces, two coming in Set 1.

Notes

Hawaii will hold an autograph session following Saturday’s match with UCI and prior to the Rainbow Warrior men’s basketball team Green & White scrimmage at 10 p.m. … Only freshman defensive specialist Savanah Kahakai didn’t play Friday. She was cleared to practice Friday for the first time since spraining her right knee two weeks ago against Toyota Auto Body. Shoji said he is hoping she’ll be cleared to play and make next week’s road trip to Long Beach State and Cal State Northridge.

Friday
Hawaii def. CSU Fullerton, 25-18, 25-19, 25-15
UC Davis def. Cal Poly, 25-20, 23-25, 25-15, 25-20
UC Santa Barbara def. UC Riverside, 25-19, 25-13, 25-12

Saturday
UC Irvine at Hawaii, 7 p.m.
CSU Northridge at Long Beach State
UC Davis at UC Santa Barbara
UC Riverside at Cal Poly
No. 25 Hawaii def. Cal State Fullerton 25-18, 25-19, 25-15

Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; bs: block solo; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills plus blocks plus aces). Service Aces — CSF 4 (Olsen 3, Roux). Hawaii 8 (Greeley 4, Taylor, Koelsch, Mendoza, Manu-Olevao). Service errors — CSF 8 (Olsen 2, Reed 2, Crenshaw 2, Roux, Brown), Hawaii 10 (Manu-Olevao 4, Higgins 2, Greeley 2, Taylor, Mendoza). Assists — CSF 23 (Olsen 19, Painton 2, Reed, Kurz), Hawaii 35 (Higgins 29, Koelsch 3, Mendoza 2, Taylor). T — 1:26. A — 4,426. Referees — Jesse Martinez, Ernie Ho.