A victory vanishes for Hawaii women’s volleyball against UCLA

Two points.

The opportunity to celebrate an upset in a storied rivalry beckoned just two points away.

Instead, in a stunningly swift turnabout, Hawaii was left to watch the jubilation on UCLA’s side of the net after the Bruins completed a five-set comeback in Sunday’s finale of the Outrigger Volleyball Challenge.

A season-high crowd of 5,416 in SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center, roaring moments earlier, shuffled out in relative silence after watching No. 23 UCLA erase a five-point deficit late in the fourth set then pull away from the Rainbow Wahine in the fifth and claim the tournament title with a 20-25, 25-13, 23-25, 25-23, 15-9 victory.

“For me, it’s definitely a hard one to swallow,” Robyn Ah Mow said, choking back the emotion in her voice. “It was ours for the taking. We obviously did not want that and they came back and did what they needed to.”

After the teams split the first two sets, UH middle blocker Amber Igiede sparked a comeback in the third and the Wahine rolled the momentum into the fourth, surging to leads of 20-13 and 23-18.

A UH service error sent UCLA’s Charitie Luper to the line, and she spent the rest of the set there in a stunning seven-point service turn that sent the match to the fifth set.

With the emotions tilting heavily to the team in powder blue and gold, the Bruins never trailed in the race to 15 and sent the Wahine to their second five-set loss of the season in a match of massive momentum swings.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow. It was a great opportunity in the fourth set to take the game and come out on top of a really good team,” Igiede said.

“At the end of the day, we didn’t go out and take the last two points. It was just a complete snowball effect. As a team we just didn’t capitalize on the things that were working. It was a good opportunity to take it from a good team, but we didn’t.”

Luper, a preseason All-Pac 12 pick making her first appearance of the season, came off the bench to lead UCLA with 17 kills in 33 swings and delivered two aces in the pivotal service run to close the fourth set.

Outside hitter élan McCall added 16 kills and was named the tournament’s MVP. Middle blocker Francesca Alupei was in on nine of UCLA’s 14 blocks and had a 10-point service run to open the second set after UH claimed the first to snap the Bruins’ streak of nine consecutive sets won.

With the victory, UCLA (4-1) claimed its third Outrigger title and the Bruins took a 39-38 lead in a series dating back to 1974.

UH freshman outside hitter Caylen Alexander led the Wahine (2-4) with 18 kills and 11 digs and Igiede, a junior middle blocker, posted her third career double-double with 11 kills and 10 blocks.

Junior Braelyn Akana tied her career high with 11 kills on 23 swings for a .304 hitting percentage.

Igeide and setter Kate Lang were named to the All-Tournament team.

With UCLA in command of the second set after Alupei’s extended service turn, Ah Mow subbed in senior Mylana Byrd at setter in search of a spark. Byrd, who hadn’t played in the first two matches of the tournament, and Lang rotated in the back row for much of the remainder of the match and each finished with 23 kills.

“Maybe our serve-pass game was not on point, but getting hitters eight feet off the net is just not what we needed and I had to try something different,” Ah Mow said. “Props to Lana for … sitting the whole time … and coming in.”

UCLA again broke ahead in the third and led 18-14 when Igiede simply took over the match.

She sent back a solo block, put away an overpass, then was in on three more blocks in succession to give UH a 20-18 lead. Her fourth kill of the set sent UH into the fourth eyeing the upset.

The Wahine appeared primed to finish off the Bruins when Annika de Goede went on a five-point service run, including the first two aces of her career, to give UH a 20-13 cushion. A spectacular rally that was extended when UH libero Tayli Ikenaga ran into the UH bench area to track down a shot, ended with a double block and Tiffany Westerberg’s kill pushed the lead to 23-18.

But after a service error, the Wahine could not get Luper off the service line over the next seven points.

“That’s the one key takeaway going into next week. We need to make adjustments faster,” Ah Mow said.

“That is a very good team on the other side, but it comes down to how many points did we give up? They’re going to make their points, but how many points are given up because we’re not doing what we need to do.”

The Wahine continue their homestand with a two-match series with No. 25 USC starting on Friday.