No. 22 Utah turns back Wahine

Fixable? Yes.

Fixable by Thursday?

That will be the question.

Hawaii has a short turnaround before meeting its fourth ranked team in seven matches when opening the Outrigger Resorts Volleyball Invitational against No. 10 Brigham Young on Thursday. The Rainbow Wahine haven’t had much luck lately with Top 25 teams since defeating Penn State in the 2015 NCAA regional semifinal.

The count is now eight straight defeats against a ranked opponent after Sunday’s 20-25, 26-24, 25-15, 25-23 loss to No. 22 Utah. A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 5,326 saw the fight but not the finish by Hawaii over the 2 hours and 19 minutes.

“The coolest thing about the losses is we know that everything that led to them is changeable on our side,” said Wahine defensive specialist Gianna Guinasso, whose serving run helped pull out Set 1 and nearly pull out Set 4. “The best losses are the ones you are in charge of.”

However, except for the end of Set 1, Hawaii had trouble taking charge against the Utes (5-1) and trouble preventing the tournament’s most outstanding player from taking charge. Utah senior hitter Adora Anae (Kahuku High) finished with 19 kills, her 32nd consecutive match in double digits.

It was the first time Hawaii had lost to Utah in 12 meetings. The Wahine’s four home losses this season match the total of all of last year.

“Losing is hard, but I can’t get mad at them, they’re doing everything that we are asking of them,” Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos said. “That was a very physical team on the other side of the net.

“I think our serving started being too easy, our passing went down and it took us out of system. If we stay in system, we’re OK. As I told the girls after, the fight is still there. We’ve got to do a better job at starting and finishing.”

Hawaii continued to have problems on rotation where sophomore setter Norene Iosia had just two offensive options with her in the front — McKenna Granato on the outside and one of two freshmen middles, either Sophia Howling or Sky Williams. There was no back-row hitting option for most of the night with a lineup of senior libero Savanah Kahakai, senior defensive specialist Clare-Marie Anderson and senior Kalei Greeley, the latter still slowed by offseason shoulder surgery that has limited her hitting.

The trade-off is more stable passing (Greeley) with no 3-meter attack.

Sophomore hitter McKenna Ross was used late but it ended up being too late.

The most effective change was made by the Utes after Set 1. They went with a two-setter system that had three attackers in the front row and a block that at times measured 6 feet 4, 6-4, 6-2 across the front.

Utah finished with 19 blocks, 15 coming after Set 1, including five when holding on in Set 2, and six when dominating Set 3. Senior middle Tawnee Luafalemana was in on 12 and freshman hitter Dani Barton 11 as the Utes finished with a 19-15 edge in stuffs.

Hawaii was led by Granato’s 24 kills but the junior hitter hit just .109 with 17 errors. Senior middle Emily Maglio was in on eight blocks to go with seven kills and Kahakai had 20 of the Wahine’s 62 digs.

“I thought we hung with Utah,” Kahakai said. “I think their big block kind of shocked us.

“It’s the little stuff we have to clean up. Everything is fixable. We’ll come back.”

The Wahine did manage an impressive comeback in Set 1. Down 19-14 Hawaii responded to what was said during a timeout in a huge way.

Maglio’s kill put Guinasso on the service line, where she camped out for eight straight points, including an ace off Utah libero Brianna Doehrmann to take the lead for good at 23-19.

A see-saw Set 2 saw the teams trading the lead four times with 12 ties. The last tie came at 24 as the Wahine rallied from 23-20 and held off two set points on kills from Howling and Kendra Koelsch.

Granato’s service error— Hawaii’s fourth of the set, seventh at that point of the match — gave the Utes their third chance to end it. Anae came through with her sixth kill.

Set 3 was never close after the Wahine closed to 8-7.

The Wahine again trailed badly in Set 4 (15-9, 20-13) before rallying to 22-21, the last two points with Guinasso again serving.

“I thought we were going to five,” she said.

Barton and Anae had other ideas. Barton put down two kills to give the Utes match point at 24-22. The Wahine held off two but not a third with Anae ending it.

NOTE

This week’s Outrigger Resorts Invitational runs Thursday through Saturday. The field also includes Baylor and Nevada.