The hangover was to be expected. After Friday’s emotionally draining upset of No. 2 Florida, No. 16 Hawaii was flat and then flatter against Eastern Washington on Saturday night.

Still, the Rainbow Wahine (8-1) had enough left to turn back the Eagles 25-19, 25-19, 22-25, 25-20 and claim their 17th Outrigger Resorts Volleyball Challenge title at the Stan Sheriff Center. Junior hitter Nikki Taylor put down a match-high 19 kills en route to her second most outstanding player honors as Hawaii bookended its preseason tournament schedule with a pair of championships.

"I had a feeling we’d come out a little flat. Friday was a very emotional match," said Wahine coach Dave Shoji, his team 8-1 for the first time since 2013. "We were lucky to survive tonight. But the bottom line was we won.

"We were really sloppy tonight. The good thing is we have a long practice week to prepare for (Cal State) Bakersfield and then the conference season."

Hawaii will host the Roadrunners in the last nonconference matches on Friday and Sunday, the latter which will be preceded by the alumnae contest.

After three straight weeks of three consecutive matches, the Wahine are ready to focus on one team and on getting better fundamentally.

"I definitely think tonight was a hangover after all the emotions of Friday’s win," said reserve sophomore setter Kendra Koelsch, who finished with three kills and 17 assists. "As a team, were were trying to get our minds right and focus on the fundamentals. We know we need to get better at fundamentals."

Fundamentals and not allowing simple mistakes to snowball into big problems. It happened at the end of Set 3 when Hawaii was all but ready to pull out the broom and sweep EWU off the court. Instead, the turnstile crowd of 4,972 got an extra unexpected 30 minutes after the Eagles went on a 5-0 run to rally from being down 22-20.

"We still have a long ways to go," added sophomore Clare-Marie Anderson, who switched from defensive specialist to libero for the final two sets. "We all know we have the potential to be good this season. We’re trying to do our best to reach that potential. It’s nice that we’ll have more practice time this week to keep getting better."

Anderson finished with a career-high nine digs, one behind sophomore Savanah Kahakai’s 10. Kahakai was the libero for the first two sets, then came in as a defensive specialist.

Shoji said that coming into Saturday’s match he thought he had found a lineup. The often-ragged play from his starters and his subs has him rethinking that.

"We’ll go back in the gym and have good competition for people to earn their positions," he said. "We’ll make changes as needed."

Senior middle Olivia Magill and senior hitter Tai Manu-Olevao each added 10 kills for the Rainbow Wahine. Magill was in on eight of the team’s 14.5 blocks.

Ana Jakovljevic led the Eagles (4-6) with 10 kills.

Joining Taylor on the all-tournament team were Wahine teammates Magill and senior hitter Tai Manu-Olevao; Florida’s Rhamat Alhassan and Nikki O’Rourke; Eastern Washington’s Allie Schumacher; and San Diego State’s Baylee Little.

In Saturday’s first match, No. 2 Florida rebounded from Friday’s five-set upset by Hawaii to sweep San Diego State 25-18, 25-11, 25-10 and claim second place. Sophomore All-America middle Alhassan finished her impressive tournament, leading the Gators (6-1) with 10 kills and eight blocks in the 70-minute sweep of the Aztecs (2-7).

Florida 3, San Diego State 0

Alhassan committed her first hitting error in three tournament matches when the Aztecs put up a triple block that gave SDSU a 10-9 lead in Set 1. The Aztecs rarely got a touch after that in finishing third in the tournament.

Florida had a tough turnaround, coming back 17 hours after a disappointing loss, "but that’s all part of the game," Alhassan said. "We’re looking forward to going back home."

The Gators, on the road for three straight weeks, finally get to play in the O’Connell Center on Thursday, hosting St. John’s.

"No team at Florida has ever been asked to do what this team has done in terms of the extended travel, the many miles," Gators coach Mary Wise said. "It’s a grind, and the way these players responded says so much about who they are as players. The story about today’s match … obviously Rhamat continues to be such a huge presence at the net."

Senior hitter Ziva Recek finished with a match-high 13 digs. The Slovenian national is expected to leave for her homeland later this month and join the Slovenian National Team which has qualified for the Women’s European Championship for the first time ever.

NO. 16 HAWAII DEF. EASTERN WASHINGTON

25-19, 25-19, 22-25, 25-20

EAGLES (4-6)

RAINBOW WAHINE (8-1)

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 — Eastern Washington 8 (Rigoni 3, Jakovljevic 2, Vido 2, Schumacher). Hawaii 5 (Taylor 3, Anderson 2).
Service errors — Eastern Washington 6 (Gilbert 2, Ensrud, Jakovljevic, Rigoni, Vido). Hawaii 5 (Taylor 3, Kahakai, Manu-Olevao).
Assists — Eastern Washington 39 (Rigoni 21, Yaglioglu 13, Ensrud 2, Schumacher 2, Jakovljevic). Hawaii 50 (Higgins 30, Koelsch 17, Anderson, Kahakai, Taylor). T — 2:08. Officials — Dickson Chun, Denice Hanson. A — 4,972.