FULLERTON, Calif.>> Norene Iosia’s farewell tour continued on Friday with the versatile senior doing it all some 30 miles away from where she grew up in Torrance.
Iosia had a career high in blocks as well as her 12th double-double of the season as No. 21 Hawaii had little trouble sweeping Cal State Fullerton 25-12, 25-19, 25-18 in a Big West volleyball match in Titan Gym. Iosia, playing both setter and hitter, was in on eight of the team’s 12 blocks with 16 assists and 12 digs.
Hawaii (17-3, 7-2) finishes what Iosia calls its “Payback Weekend” today when facing UC Irvine (4-15, 1-6). The Anteaters stunned the Wahine with a reverse sweep on Oct. 4 at the Stan Sheriff Center in winning for the first time in 41 meetings.
The Titans (10-9, 2-6) nearly did it as well the following night in Honolulu before Hawaii pulled the reverse sweep to win in five in 2 hours and 48 minutes. The Wahine needed just 88 minutes on Friday to extend the series record with the Titans to 42-0.
“They took us to five last time and we knew we needed to make the plays, especially on defense,” Iosia said. “I think we did a better job overall with our serve-and-pass game.
“And now Irvine … they got a win over us and it affected us. I wouldn’t say we’re out for blood. It’s more like a payback weekend.”
Coming up money again for Hawaii was Hanna Hellvig, the reigning conference freshman of the week. The outside hitter, playing in front of her parents and younger sister who had traveled from Sweden, finished with a team-high 12 kills, her 16th match in double-digits.
“I thought she played a good game today,” Hellvig’s father, Anders, said. “We’re happy to be able to watch her play and meet her teammates. We’ve been watching video stream at 4 in the morning. We feel like we know the whole team because we’ve seen so much of them.
“To see her live was so much fun.”
Hellvig had four kills and Hawaii had five of its 12 blocks in running away with Set 1. The Wahine weren’t as dominating as they were in their last visit to Titan Gym — a 25-3 victory with 10 aces in the first set last year — but they closed it in impressive fashion.
Hawaii turned a 16-12 lead into a 25-12 rout with libero Rika Okino serving the final eight points.
The Wahine didn’t come out as sharp in Set 2 and the Titans capitalized, closing to 16-15 and 20-19. Senior McKenna Ross had one of her seven kills to spark a 5-0 closing run.
Fullerton never threatened in Set 3, down early (3-1) and late (16-9). Hellvig’s final kill made it 23-18 and two Titan hitting errors gave Hawaii its fourth sweep of the season.
“The gameplan was executed,” Wahine coach Robyn Ah Mow said. “Overall, they followed the scouting report, which was win the serve-and-pass game, stay in system. The blocking did great. What more can you ask?
“And Norene … Norene is Norene.”
Teaming with Iosia on most of her blocks was junior middle Sky Williams, who was in on seven with one solo. Okino finished with nine of the team’s 57 digs and had two of the Wahine’s six aces.
Freshman middle Amber Igiede added eight kills as the balanced Hawaii attack had six players with at least five kills. Freshman Braelyn Akana, playing outside instead of middle, had five kills with no errors on 11 swings in her fifth appearance.
Julia Crawford led the Titans with 13 kills and libero Savahna Costello had 15 of the team’s 50 digs.
The teams combined for 105 digs Friday. In Honolulu, they had a combined 213 and Costello had 30.
Tyler Fezzey, who had 12 kills when she last saw the Wahine, had just two in the rematch.
