Wahine soar above Eagles

Tradition comes in many forms, and when it comes to Hawaii volleyball, that tradition has worn blue and gold since 1974. The Rainbow Wahine and UCLA have met every season that the Hawaii program has been in existence and, for the 73rd time, it will happen again Sunday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Courtesy of sweeps in their matches Saturday, No. 17 Hawaii and No. 25 UCLA head into the 5 p.m. Hawaiian Airlines Classic finale as the tournament’s two unbeatens. The Rainbow Wahine (5-0) needed 95 minutes to top American 25-22, 25-18, 25-20 — the Eagles’ third consecutive match against a ranked team — and the Bruins (3-1) took 75 to down Iowa, 25-20, 25-16, 25-13.

It sets up a true championship match between the two, the 14th time in the 28 years of the event. The Wahine, seeking their 12th overall title, hold an 8-6 edge when facing the Bruins for the title; UCLA has won nine overall, the last in 2011 in coach Mike Sealy’s second year after leaving as Hawaii’s associate head coach.

It likely means more to longtime fans than it does to the current players.

"We haven’t talked about UCLA until about five minutes ago," Hawaii junior hitter Nikki Taylor said in the post-match press conference. "We were focused on American. They are a good team, we respected that and respected them.

"We can now put this one behind us and focus on the next opponent."

Taylor helped make it a quick night, putting down a match-high 15 kills in hitting .542. She had two hitting errors, the first coming on her 17th swing after she already had 11 kills in her first 16 attempts.

Sophomore Kalei Greeley played herself out of negative hitting early to finish with 10 kills, hitting .a career-high 471. Senior middle Olivia Magill added nine kills and was in on three of Hawaii’s 6.5 blocks and senior hitter Tai Manu-Olevao came off the bench for eight kills with no errors, hitting a career-high .727.

Fourteen of the 15 available Wahine played — freshman middle Nastasha Burns is still out with a hand fracture — including freshman hitter McKenna Granato, who made her first career start in place of Manu-Olevao.

"It shows our depth," said junior setter Tayler Higgins, finishing with four of the team’s seven aces. "Tonight showed the potential of what we can do when we play well. Our serving was a lot tougher, we made some scramble plays that we hadn’t been making."

Hawaii did have to scramble early when Taylor left the court with Hawaii leading 10-5, saying she needed a few minutes to catch her breath. The Eagles were able to capitalize on her absence to score six unanswered points and an 11-10 lead.

The Wahine regained the lead for good at 15-14 and finally broke away late. Taylor had Hawaii’s final three kills.

American continued to challenge Hawaii in the remaining two sets, with the Wahine able to fend off all of them. Senior hitter Allison Cappellino got loose for 10 kills, but Hawaii contained the Eagles for the most part.

"I thought Nikki had a good night and continues to carry us," Wahine coach Dave Shoji said. "Tai had no errors for the second night and we’ve been able to take some pressure off her in the back row, which helps us.

"Greeley started slow but ends up with 10 kills. Annie (junior middle Mitchem) looked good (in Set 3) and (sophomore middle Emily) Maglio had her moments.

"We weren’t real emotional tonight, but that’s OK. We know we’ll have a lot of emotion tomorrow against the Bruins."

Third place will be decided in the 2:30 p.m. opener between American (3-3) and Iowa (2-3).

No. 25 UCLA 3, Iowa 0

Junior hitter Jordan Anderson had a match-high 16 kills to lead the Bruins to their second straight victory. Freshman setter Zana Muno added with double-double (38 assists, 10 digs), junior libero Taylor Formico finished with a match-high 12 digs and senior defensive specialist Rachel Inouye (Punahou) added eight digs.

Sophomore middle Jess Janota led the Hawkeyes with six kills. Junior setter Loxley Keala (‘Iolani) finished with 21 assists for Iowa, loser of three straight.

No. 17 Hawaii Def. American 25-22, 25-18, 25-20

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 — American 4 (Smidova, Cappellino, Dawson, Lindovska). Hawaii 7 (Higgins 4, Taylor 2, Granato). Service errors — American 7 (Smidova 3, Kazala, Cappellino, Swartz, Dawson). Hawaii 12 (Higgins 4, Granato 3, Taylor 2, Guinasso 2, Manu-Olevao). Assists — American 28 (Smidova 24, Kazala, Cappellino, Dawson, Vlaanderen). Hawaii 44 (Higgins 41, Kahakai 2, Granato). T — 1:35. Officials — Denice Hanson, Dickson Chun.  A — 4,989.