Hawaii nearly pulled off a surprise birthday party for its head volleyball coach. An hour after being left for dead — dropping Set 2 25-10 and looking bad doing it — the Rainbow Wahine were still playing.
And not just playing but were on the verge of upsetting No. 12 Oregon (7-3), which had knocked off then-No. 1 Minnesota a week ago.
A season-high Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,242 saw Hawaii (4-5) come up short, falling to a ranked team for the 12th straight time dating back to 2015. But the 25-23, 25-10, 22-25, 23-25, 15-12 loss felt as close to a victory as it could be in the eyes of Wahine coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos.
“You never want to lose, but look at what happened after Game 2,” said Ah Mow-Santos, who turns 43 today. “Going from losing by two (points) to losing the way we did in the second … I didn’t know what team was going to come out after that.
“But only Hawaii does stuff like what happened. Good things happened. There’s that no-die defense. They kept scrambling, kept swinging.”
The Wahine had 93 digs over 2 hours and 23 minutes, their most since the 104 in a five-set win at UC Irvine in 2014. Five players were in double-figure digs — the most since the season-ending five-set loss to Illinois in the NCAA tournament first round — led by senior libero Tita Akiu’s 26, which tied her UH high.
Junior setter-hitter Norene Iosia added 16 as part of her second triple-double of the season (13 kills and 20 assists) and senior hitter McKenna Granato had 12 to go along with a match-high 16 kills. Senior setter Faith Ma’afala added 16 to her 34 assists and sophomore defensive specialist Rika Okino finished with a career-high 11.
“After going down 2-0 … we would have shocked the world if we had won,” Iosia said. “Coming out (of the locker room) our mind-set was we’re going three more (sets). The fifth is 50-50 — it didn’t go our way.”
It nearly did. A kill by Granato put Hawaii up 10-9, but Oregon went on a 6-2 run to close it out, punctuating it with a block of senior opposite Angel Gaskin. It was the 18th block for the Ducks.
Hawaii heads out on the road to open Big West play next week and “this is a positive for us to go on the road,” Iosia said.
The Wahine are at UC Davis (8-3) on Friday and UC Irvine (5-6) on Sunday.
Senior hitter Lindsey Vander Weide led the Ducks (7-3) with 14 kills and had 12 digs, as well as serving runs that put Hawaii in big holes all night. Junior middle Ronika Stone added 11 kills and was in on 10 blocks. Junior opposite Taylor Borup finished 11 kills, including four in the deciding Set 5.
Hawaii continued to have problems in the rotation when Vander Weide served. The senior hitter served out Set 2 Thursday night when the Ducks rallied to win it 25-23 on a 7-0 run.
Friday night, Vander Weide’s extended stay on the back line had Oregon rallying for six straight and a 7-3 lead. Hawaii chased the rest of the way, overcoming a 5-0 difference in blocks while tying four times from 20 to 23, staying alive with 24 digs, eight by Akiu.
Ducks senior setter August Raskie won a joust for set point and a Wahine timeout did nothing but delay the inevitable. Sumeet Gill’s second kill gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead.
Whatever fight Hawaii showed in Set 1 disappeared in the second, as did a 4-2 lead. The Ducks could do no wrong while outscoring the Wahine 12-1 to run away at 14-5. At 19-10, Oregon closed it out again Vander Weide’s serving, 25-10. It was the worst single-set loss since Hawaii fell 25-9 in Set 2 when it was swept in the 2008 regional by Stanford.
That apparently didn’t matter to the Wahine, who spent the next hour atoning for all that went wrong in Set 2 in forcing a fifth.
Note
UC Riverside senior hitter Kaiulani Ahuna (Kamehameha-Hawaii) put down a program-high 34 kills to lead the Highlanders (5-5) to a 3-2 win over Idaho on Friday.
