Wahine gouge Gauchos

Generous to a fault.

There were plenty of giveaways during Friday night’s Big West volleyball match, but the ones that continued to drive the Hawaii coaching staff nuts were the free points the Rainbow Wahine gave up on service errors.

Hawaii survived 11 errors from the service line against UC Santa Barbara, running down the Gauchos in Set 2, then running away for a 25-20, 26-24, 25-11 victory. As a crowd of 4,341 watched for 99 minutes, the Wahine (11-5, 5-0) ran their win streaks to 22 in conference dating back to 2014 and nine this season.

Both of those will be on the line tonight as Hawaii hosts Cal Poly (15-2, 5-0) in what the Big West is calling the “Big Game.” The Wahine said they had homework to do after Friday night’s match to prepare for the Mustangs, who come in on a 10-match winning streak.

Not looking ahead to Cal Poly was “easy,” said senior middle Emily Maglio, who was in on 10 of Hawaii’s 12 blocks. “It was easy to focus on tonight. We’re taking it one game at a time.

“We came in thinking it would be a close game. Now we can move on to Cal Poly.”

Helping the Wahine were junior hitter McKenna Granato, who had a match-high 18 kills, and senior libero Savanah Kahakai, whose 11 digs had her moving past All-American Kanani Danielson and into fifth place on the program’s all-time digs list.

“Just doing my job,” Kahakai said after recording double-digit digs for the 12th time this season.

Kahakai also had a key service run at the end of Set 2 as Hawaii held off three set points, rallying from down 24-21 to score the final five points. Kahakai’s ace, which hit the tape and dribbled over, tied it at 24, and Maglio and senior hitter Kendra Koelsch teamed to stuff UCSB sophomore hitter Lindsey Ruddins on consecutive plays to give the Wahine at 2-0 lead at the break.

Ruddins, second in the country in kills (5.53 kps) finished with just 11, five coming in Set 3. Hawaii targeted her on serve, “trying to move her around (on serve-receive),” Wahine coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos said. “She gets 90 percent of their swings, so …”

Ruddins had little help from the rest of the Gauchos (3-14, 2-3) who lost their third straight match, all coming on the road. Junior libero Emilia Petrachi kept UCSB in the match with 21 digs.

“I’m happy we won, but those (service errors) drive me nuts,” Ah Mow-Santos said. “I’m OK if they’re going for it. They’ve got to be free to take chances.”

The pressure was on Kahakai at 24-21 — her only thought was “don’t miss,” she said. “I told them when I went back to serve to keep fighting.

“I think this was a really key comeback for us. Usually it’s been in five sets, but this was at game point (in Set 2). It was a sigh of relief.”

Hawaii had three service errors in helping UCSB take a 10-7 lead early in Set 1. The Wahine cleaned it up from the backline and held off a late charge from the Gauchos.

Set 2 was dominated by serving runs, Kahakai’s 7-0 spurt seeming to put Hawaii in control at 15-11, only to have Ruddins tee off for six straight to give UCSB a 21-17 lead.

Granato’s service error — UH’s fifth of the set — gave the Gauchos set point at 24-21. Kahakai held serve for the next five. UCSB didn’t have much left coming out of the locker room.

In Set 3, sophomore setter Norene Iosia served Hawaii to 10-4 lead, one that ballooned to 22-9 as junior hitter Casey Castillo served for six straight. The Wahine outblocked the Gauchos 6-0 in Set 3.

Note

Tonight’s match is designated “Dig Pink” for breast cancer awareness month.