Rainbow Wahine rally over Arizona
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hawaii middle blocker Emily Maglio puts down a kill against Arizona middle blocker Mckenzie Jacobson (18) and outside hitter Katarina Pilepic (6) during the final game of the 2016 Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational.
Sophomore hitter McKenna Granato put down a career-high 33 kills and No. 6 Hawaii avoided its first 0-3 start since 1980 when rallying past Arizona 15-25, 23-25, 25-18, 25-19, 15-13 today at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Junior middle Emily Maglio added 12 kills and junior libero Savanah Kahakai had 23 digs as the Rainbow Wahine (1-2) finished third in the Chevron Invitational with the Wildcats (0-3) fourth.
Senior hitter Kalei Mau (Kaiser) had 21 kills and 19 digs to lead Arizona.
No. 4 Wisconsin (3-0) defeated Kansas State (2-1) earlier today to claim the tournament title, 25-18, 25-15, 25-20.
Mau and Kahakai were named to the all-tournament team. Also honored were Wisconsin’s Lauren Carlini (Most Outstanding Player), Tionna Williams and Haleigh Nelson. From Kansas State, Katie Brand and Brooke Sassin were selected.
9 responses to “Rainbow Wahine rally over Arizona”
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Congratulations NaWahine, a very gutty performance by all and especially Granato. Maybe it does bode well that she will lead this team while Taylor and Mitchem are sidelined. A fun game to watch with Ross and Castillo playing significantly and Mags returning to her “old” self.
My prediction get blown out. I was thinking that their first win would be around the 7-8 match and tonight they win in five.
Granato was amazing, she really stepped up big time. And Ross playing OH when she listed as DS. Greely is still not comfortable.
Great win tonight for the girls.
Ross reminds me of her aunty Nohea Tano. Coaches may reconsider her position.
Never was a fan of Granato…well, she played awesome tonight…great match.
With all the division one talent the state of Hawaii produces every year, when you’re the player of the year in your class you better believe that she has the talent to succeed in college ball. UH is lucky to have such an athlete choose to come here instead of going to a mainland school. Not sure why so many here rag on her saying they “aren’t a fan of her”. She’s also only a sophomore too so she will continue to get better and better and probably earn all american status by the time her senior season rolls around.
Come on, get real. Lucky if she makes all conference. She gets stuffed against better team and will get stuffed against better teams. She did well against an unranked, tired team who’ll be lucky to finish in the middle of the pack in their conference. She’s another one of those “favoritism Punahou” picks Shogun loves, just like Higgins. She tries and competes hard, I’ll give you that but to consider her an All American? Jeez…
Always get stuffed against better teams? Explain her output against Minnesota last year in the NCAA tournament when pretty much the rest of the Wahine got shut down cold. Fluke?
Even a broken clock is correct twice a day. Why do you dodos insist on a single game as evidence of greatness? She’s proven NOTHING over a reliable sampling timeframe. If she proves over the whole season she can hit consistently without getting stuffed in her face, yeah she can be evaluated on her talent level. But don’t put this “All American” carp out when she didn’t even make the all tournament team, did she?
Watching this team the last three nights, at times it looked like you got six players who never played together before, put them on the court, and then said, let’s see what you got. At other times, it looked like a case of burnout for the returning players. But in reality, there are a lot of newbies, and only the players themselves know what they need to do to get things rolling.
Ioho, competition is a good thing, but you gotta balance that with leadership from the players with the experience. Otherwise, you don’t play as a team.
So, give the coaches the time to bring this team along. Let’s see where they are at the end of the regular season. What matters at the end of the day is when the NCAA tournament rolls around. Why worry about stuff like rankings and rpi, when the only thing that really matters is that you have to win to in order to make it back to the finals. Kind of like how they found a way to win, tonight.