Be it by text, tweet or any other instantaneous communication, No. 11 Hawaii had one goal in mind this week.
Send a message to the rest of the Big West, and the rest of the country, that the Rainbow Wahine are legit.
It came through loud and clear Saturday night when Hawaii won its seventh consecutive match, using 10 blocks and errorless hitting by its middle blockers for a second consecutive match in a 25-20, 25-12, 25-19 victory over Cal Poly.
Behind junior Nikki Taylor’s 11 kills, and 10 kills and six blocks by senior middle Olivia Magill, the Rainbow Wahine will head off on their first road trip this week with a 12-1 record, 2-0 in conference. A crowd of 5,519 watched as Hawaii needed just 95 minutes to send the Mustangs (8-4, 0-1) back home with a loss in their first Big West match.
"Personally, I was disappointed in how I played (Friday)," said Magill, who had six kills against UC Santa Barbara on Friday. "I’m a lot happier about how I played tonight.
"This shows everyone what we can do. If they look at our stats, the team hitting for a high percentage … there is a message."
There is no code to break when it comes to deciphering Hawaii’s offense. Pass well and pass around the sets, pass poorly and fail at diversifying the offense.
"When we pass great, it opens everyone up," said sophomore libero Savanah Kahakai, finishing with 12 of the team’s 37 digs. "Sometimes we feel we have to set Nikki (Taylor) more because that’s the option. When the passers tune in, we’re able to better run the offense, especially the middles."
Saturday, Hawaii’s middles were a combined 18-for-28 with no errors. Sophomore middle Emily Maglio put down five of her nine attempts and junior Annie Mitchem was 3-for-3.
"I thought our passing has been outstanding," Wahine coach Dave Shoji said. "It’s allowing us to move things around, it really opens everything up. And our hitters are hitting smart, too.
"I thought we might struggle tonight, but we played really well. We wanted to send a message to the league that we’re a very good team. I think we did."
Sometimes game plans aren’t always followed, but Hawaii executed what it had set out to do, which was take away Cal Poly’s strength. While freshman hitter Adlee Van Winden did manage 12 kills — sharing match-high honors with sophomore hitter Raeann Greisen — half of Van Winden’s came in Set 3, when the Wahine were in control.
Van Winden also led the Mustangs in digs with 11. Sophomore setter Taylor Nelson also had a double-double with 10 digs and 26 assists.
Wahine junior setter Tayler Higgins also had a double-double with 37 assists and 10 digs. Hawaii, which had just six hitting errors against the Gauchos on Friday, finished with 11 Saturday.
Hawaii kept its Set 2 winning streak a perfect 13-0 when running away against Cal Poly, not committing a hitting error in hitting .636 and siding-out at 100 percent for a second time this season. Down 4-3 the Wahine went off on a 10-1 run, including a 6-0 serving stint by Clare-Marie Anderson in which Mustangs coach Sam Crosson — a former teammate of UH associate coach Jeff Hall at Pacific — used both of his timeouts.
Hawaii matched its national ranking in blocks with five stuffs in Set 2, with Magill in on four and Cal Poly hitting .000.
For the second consecutive night, Shoji was fairly happy with his team’s blocking, although he pointed out that the Wahine were "used" a couple of times during the match with the Mustangs able to "tool the block."
"Overall, I thought we did a nice job blocking," he said. "We touched a lot of balls. We were able to take away their best hitter (Van Winden), although Greisen had a nice night and we couldn’t stop her."
Hawaii leaves Wednesday for its first road trip of the season, playing at Cal State Fullerton (0-13, 0-1) on Friday and UC Riverside (6-8, 1-0) on Saturday.
"We won’t have our big crowds on the road," Magill said. "We’ll have to create our own energy. We’re ready to go."
BIG WEST VOLLEYBALL |
|
CONFERENCE |
OVERALL |
|
W |
L |
PCT. |
GB |
W |
L |
HAWAII |
2 |
0 |
1.000 |
— |
12 |
1 |
LONG BEACH ST. |
2 |
0 |
1.000 |
— |
12 |
4 |
CSUN |
2 |
0 |
1.000 |
— |
3 |
11 |
UC RIVERSIDE |
1 |
0 |
1.000 |
1/2 |
6 |
8 |
SANTA BARBARA |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
1 1/2 |
4 |
8 |
CAL POLY |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
1 1/2 |
8 |
4 |
CSU FULLERTON |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
1 1/2 |
0 |
13 |
UC IRVINE |
0 |
2 |
.000 |
2 |
6 |
9 |
UC DAVIS |
0 |
2 |
.000 |
2 |
5 |
11 |
Saturday
No. 11 Hawaii def. Cal Poly, 25-20, 25-12, 25-19
No. 25 Long Beach State def. UC Irvine 25-18, 23-25, 25-21, 25-17
CSUN def. UC Davis, 25-16, 28-26, 23-25, 27-25
Wednesday
CSU Fullerton at UC Irvine
UC Riverside at UC Davis
Friday
Hawaii at CSU Fullerton, 4 p.m.
Long Beach State at Cal Poly
CSUN at UC Santa Barbara
Saturday, Oct. 3
Hawaii at UC Riverside, 3 p.m.
Long Beach State at UC Santa Barbara
CSUN at Cal Poly
UC Irvine at UC Davis
NO. 11 HAWAII DEF. CAL POLY 25-20, 25-12, 25-19 |
MUSTANGS (8-4, 0-1) |
|
S |
K |
E |
ATT |
PCT |
D |
BS |
BA |
VAN WINDEN |
3 |
12 |
8 |
39 |
.103 |
11 |
0 |
1 |
GREISEN |
3 |
12 |
3 |
28 |
.321 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
NELSON |
3 |
4 |
1 |
8 |
.375 |
10 |
0 |
2 |
|
GRUENEWALD |
3 |
2 |
4 |
9 |
-.222 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
NIEMEN |
3 |
2 |
2 |
6 |
.000 |
3 |
0 |
3 |
SCHLEIS |
3 |
1 |
4 |
13 |
-.231 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
ROACH |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
BROUKER |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
CARROLL |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
KESSLER |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
TOTALS |
3 |
33 |
22 |
104 |
.106 |
38 |
0 |
10 |
RAINBOW WAHINE (12-1, 2-0) |
|
S |
K |
E |
ATT |
PCT |
D |
BS |
BA |
TAYLOR |
3 |
11 |
5 |
29 |
.207 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
MAGILL |
3 |
10 |
0 |
16 |
.625 |
0 |
2 |
4 |
MANU-OLEVAO |
3 |
8 |
2 |
19 |
.316 |
7 |
0 |
0 |
GREELEY |
3 |
7 |
2 |
21 |
.238 |
4 |
0 |
3 |
MAGLIO |
3 |
5 |
0 |
9 |
.556 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
MITCHEM |
2 |
3 |
0 |
3 |
1.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
HIGGINS |
3 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
-1.000 |
10 |
0 |
2 |
PONCE |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
KOELSCH |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
GRANATO |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
ANDERSON |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
GUINASSO |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
KAHAKAI |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
12 |
0 |
0 |
CASTILLO |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
.000 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
TOTALS |
3 |
44 |
11 |
99 |
.333 |
37 |
4 |
12 |
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 — Cal Poly 1 (Kessler).
Hawaii 6 (Manu-Olevao 3, Taylor 2, Kahakai). Service errors — Cal Poly 3 (Nelson 2, Brouker). Hawaii 5 (Greeley 2, Higgins, Manu-Olevao, Taylor). Assists — Cal Poly 31 (Nelson 26, Brouker, Kessler, Niemen, Roach, Van Winden).
Hawaii 42 (Higgins 37, Kahakai 2, Anderson, Guinasso, Koelsch). T — 1:35.
Officials — Bill Forrester, Wayne Lee.
A — 5,519.a