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It continues to be about the stamina and endurance, grit and determination.
For the fourth consecutive week, No. 19 Hawaii will play on consecutive days, the second volleyball match coming against an opponent that hadn’t played the day before. And, for two of the past three weeks, the Rainbow Wahine have had a quick turnaround to play again after going five the previous day.
Hawaii went 1-1 in those situations, swept by current No. 1 Baylor the afternoon after pulling out a 3-2 victory over then-No. 17 Missouri, and pulling out a reverse sweep of Cal State Fullerton the night after a stunning five-set loss to UC Irvine.
This week? Hawaii (13-2, 3-1 Big West) will go head-to-head on back-to-back nights with the two undefeated conference co-leaders: Cal Poly (12-5, 5-0) today and UC Santa Barbara (15-1, 5-0) Saturday. It’s somewhat of a preview of next week’s Round 1 of the Blue-Green Battle between the Mustangs and the Gauchos on California’s central coast.
Throw out the five-set meltdown against UCI — one where Hawaii’s unforced errors played a major role — and it’s gone the Wahine’s way in five sets. UH has 3-2 victories over San Diego, St. John’s, Missouri and Fullerton.
The Wahine credit the success to the regimens begun in spring for the returnees and fall camp for the newcomers. They point to the strength and conditioning program overseen by coordinator Tommy Heffernan.
“And Coach Rob in our practices,” freshman middle Tiffany Westerberg said of head coach Robyn Ah Mow. “She pushes us.
“But some of the five-setters could have been three-setters. From the losses we learned that we need to control our side of the net, need to be more crisp. It was our errors.”
Against Baylor, Hawaii was up 17-10 in Set 2 but couldn’t close en route to being swept. Against UCI, Hawaii was three points away from sweeping the Anteaters at 22-21 in Set 3, but a service error tied it at 22 and UCI won 25-23. It was 12-12 in Set 5 only to have a free ball sent into the net to give the Anteaters a 13-12 lead en route to a 15-13 upset.
“Playing two five-setters last week was grueling,” Wahine freshman hitter Riley Wagoner said. “But, if that happens later in the year, it will help to have that experience. It will help us in the long run.
“We learned a lot from last weekend. We know we need to play better.”
Hawaii has had some epic marathons recently at Cal Poly and UCSB. The Wahine won in five last season in Santa Barbara, Calif. In San Luis Obispo, Calif., the Wahine won in five in 2016 and lost in five in 2017.
“Conditioning is something we talk about with the girls,” Hawaii assistant coach Kaleo Baxter said. “They are in good shape.
“We don’t train them for three-setters, we train them for five-setters. They have to be able to go hard for five.”
Note
Hawaii is 10-11 in five-setters in Ah Mow’s three seasons: 4-1 this year, 3-4 in 2018 and 3-6 in 2017. The Wahine’s NCAA tournament runs the past two years ended in five-set losses in the first round, to Illinois in 2017 and Baylor in 2018.
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