Poll woes continue for Wahine | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

TONY AVELAR / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
Hawaii junior hitter Nikki Taylor was named the Big West player of the week for the fourth time this season. She had 21 kills in Sunday’s four-set win over UC Davis.

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Much like Hawaii’s playing schedule this week, traveling up and down California, the Rainbow Wahine’s Monday was very much up and down.

The “up” was Hawaii junior opposite Nikki Taylor being named the Big West volleyball player of the week for the fourth time this season, as well as the Rainbow Wahine moving up five places in the Ratings Percentage Index. The “down” was Hawaii dropping a spot in the AVCA Coaches Division I Top 25 for the second straight week to No. 8.

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Taylor put down 21 kills with nine digs and was in on five blocks in Sunday’s four-set win at UC Davis. It was the sixth time this season that the Kaiser High graduate had 20-plus kills.

Taylor is the fourth Rainbow Wahine to earn four weekly conference honors in the same season. The others were Heather Bown (1999), Kim Willoughby (2001) and Emily Hartong (2012 and 2013).

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Hawaii (23-1, 13-0 Big West), riding an 18-match win streak, clinched at least a share of the Big West title with Sunday’s victory over the Aggies. The Wahine can win it outright by defeating host UC Irvine (12-13, 6-7) today, the first of three matches in five days this week to conclude the regular season. Hawaii is at Cal Poly (19-6, 11-3) on Thursday and UC Santa Barbara (7-16, 3-11) on Saturday.

In the poll, only No. 5 Texas (22-2) remained in the same spot as last week, with the other top 11 teams moving around. USC (27-1), receiving 47 first-place votes, moved up a place to No. 1, with Washington (24-2, 10 votes) and Minnesota (23-3, 7) both moving up a spot, helped by former No. 1 Penn State (24-3) being upset at Minnesota.

The Nittany Lions fell to No. 4, followed by Texas and Nebraska (22-4). The Cornhuskers leapfrogged Stanford (18-6) and Hawaii (23-1) to jump two places to No. 6, moving the Cardinal and Rainbow Wahine down one.

UCLA (21-5), the only team to defeat Hawaii this season, fell two spots from No. 9 to No. 11.

In the RPI, the computer-generated ranking that is used by the NCAA selection committee to seed the postseason tournament, Hawaii moved to 27 after being at 32 the past two weeks. Minnesota moved into the top spot, followed by Texas and USC.

Hawaii remains the only team in the top 10 of the coaches poll that is not in the top 12 of the RPI.