Rainbow Wahine volleyball’s Amber Igiede wins Big West award; hoops, beach teams land recruits

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM

Tiffany Westerberg and Amber Igiede block a UC San Diego attack during Sunday’s match.

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A week after being honored for her defensive prowess, Amber Igiede earned conference recognition for a remarkable weekend on the attack.

The University of Hawaii middle blocker was named the Big West women’s volleyball Offensive Player of the Week on Monday after putting away 30 kills with a .592 hitting percentage in two Rainbow Wahine sweeps.

Igiede won the Big West’s Defensive Player of the Week award on Nov. 8 and helped power the Rainbow Wahine to home wins over UC Irvine on Friday and UC San Diego on Sunday.

She set a career high with 17 kills without an error in 27 swings and posted five blocks against UC Irvine. She followed with the second double-double of her career with 13 kills and 10 blocks against UC San Diego.

Over her past three matches, including a four-set win at Long Beach State on Nov. 6, Igiede has 41 kills with one error in 63 attempts for a .635 hitting percentage.

“Amber is Amber,” UH coach Robyn Ah Mow said after Sunday’s match. “That girl is loud, crazy and a ‘just-go’ girl. She’s got thump on her ball and I’m glad she’s on our team.”

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Igiede is hitting .406 in Big West matches, good for second in the conference, while averaging 3.06 kills per set. She also leads the league with 1.43 blocks per set against Big West competition.

The Rainbow Wahine (18-6, 15-1 BWC) take a two-game lead in the standings into their final road trip of the regular season this week. UH plays at CSU Bakersfield (16-8. 9-7) on Friday and at Cal Poly (13-14, 11-5) on Saturday.

Lefotu among hoops signees

‘Iolani standout Jovi Lefotu was among three players to sign with the Rainbow Wahine basketball program.

Lefotu, a 5-8 shooting guard, was named to the Star-Advertiser All-State team in 2020, when she averaged 13 points per game while helping the Raiders to the state title. She led ‘Iolani with 22 points on 7-for-10 shooting in the final against Konawaena. Her sister, Lily Wahinekapu, is a freshman at Cal State Fullerton.

“She is versatile and is a perfect addition to our offense,” UH coach Laura Beeman said in a release.

The Wahine also added size to the post and the backcourt with the signings of Imani Perez, a 6-foot-4 forward from Denver, and Avery Watkins, a 6-foot guard from Seattle.

BeachBows sign three

The Rainbow Wahine beach volleyball program, under interim coach Evan Silberstein, announced the signing of three recruits for the 2023 spring season.

The BeachBows received a commitment from 6-foot Jesse Mann, the program’s first recruit from Australia. Mann has won five golds in national competition, most recently in the U21 division in the Australian Beach Volleyball Championships.

UH also signed 6-foot Sydney Miller from San Diego and 5-foot-9 Portia Sherman from Goleta, Calif. Both took part in USA Beach Volleyball training programs during their high school careers.