Following a four-set win over Southern Cal on Friday, Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow spoke of expecting the Women of Troy to come back stronger in Saturday’s rematch.

Through 21⁄2 sets, the second meeting of the Outrigger Volleyball Series held to the script of the first, with the teams splitting the first two and the Rainbow Wahine in position to reclaim the momentum in the third in rolling out to a 20-11 lead.

Instead, the Women of Troy stunned the Wahine with a 14-2 run to take the set, then held off a UH rally in the fourth set to claim a 21-25, 25-16, 25-22, 25-23 win and earn a split of the two-match series at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

“We just didn’t adjust,” Ah Mow said of the pivotal third-set swing. “We took too long to adjust to the serve and in that set they were going high right side, before it was high left.”

Brooke Botkin and Emilia Weske led USC with 16 kills each, Brooklyn Schirmer finished with 12 kills and Candice Denny added 10 as the Trojans (4-4) snapped a three-match losing streak.

The Trojans posted eight of their 13 blocks in the final two sets, including on match point when Denny and Weske teamed up to send UH outside hitter Brooke Van Sickle’s 57th attempt back onto UH’s side of the court.

“A lot of (the blocks) were high balls out of system, ” Ah Mow said. “They’re obviously big and we have to figure out how to play against a bigger block.”

UH fell short in its bid to get back to .500 and will enter the Big West season at 3-5 following a bye this week.

Van Sickle led the Wahine with 12 kills in 57 attempts for a .070 hitting percentage. Amber Igiede added 11 kills while hitting .450 in the middle and freshman Annika de Goede followed up her breakout performance on Friday with eight kills in 18 attempts.

Van Sickle also carried a heavy load in serve receive with 40 receptions.

“Personally I definitely could have passed the ball better to help the team out for sure,” Van Sickle said. “It’s pretty much take care of the first ball, it’s one ball at a time and if stuff doesn’t go well, it’s refresh and next one. We can definitely do a better job of that moving on.”

The Rainbow Wahine led throughout an opening set that included three aces by Riley Wagoner, Igeide and Mylana Byrd, and Igiede and de Goede combined on a block on set point.

As in Friday’s match, the trends flipped and the Women of Troy pulled away to even the match. USC hit .342 in the set to UH’s .079, with Denny putting away five kills and Botkin adding five more from the outside.

With the Trojans misfiring, the Wahine jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the third set and were in control at 20-11. Weske pounded a kill off the block and Botkin spent the next eight points on the service line and the Trojans closed to within a point on a block by Schirmer and Sabrina Smith. A Van Sickle kill did little to slow the USC momentum and the Trojans surged ahead with a 4-0 run and completed the stunning comeback with an ace by Sam Hastings.

“We definitely know that in tough situations we can take care of business,” Van Sickle said. “Tonight I just think we got complacent. We definitely could have taken care of a lot more balls.”

The fourth set included eight ties and three lead changes, with USC moving ahead for the final time at 17-16 on a kill by Denny. The Trojans were content to trade sideouts and earned match point on a block by Schirmer and Denny.

UH staved off the first two match points on a kill by Skyler Williams on her first swing of the weekend and an ace by Martyna Leoniak, who also made her first appearance of the series. UH had a swing to tie the set, but Denny and Weske blocked Van Sickle to end the match.

“We were right there with them,” Ah Mow said. “It’s just the errors, the unforced errors and serving errors and then we start easing up on the serves, lollipop serves. We’re not going to win with that.”