Powered by a closing surge from Hawaii’s floor captain and timely contributions off the bench, the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team continued its recent mastery in its rivalry with Long Beach State with a four-set victory on Saturday in Long Beach, Calif.

Outside hitter Riley Wagoner hammered UH’s final four kills and finished with a match-high 16 to help the Wahine overcome a third-set lull on their way to a 25-20, 25-21, 15-25, 25-19 win over the Beach at the Walter Pyramid.

“I think everyone was putting each other in good situations,” Wagoner said of a 12-5 UH run to close the match. “We were getting a lot of good block touches, the passing was doing really well and (setters Kate Lang and Mylana Byrd) were putting up really good balls. So it was a culmination of all of that coming together.”

Outside hitter Caylen Alexander contributed 13 kills and middle blocker Amber Igiede added 10 and the Wahine (7-5, 4-0 Big West) won their fifth straight match overall and 10th straight against Long Beach State (6-6, 1-3), extending UH’s lead in the series to 40-18-1.

The Rainbow Wahine remain tied with UC Santa Barbara for first place in the conference and return home to face UC Irvine (9-5, 2-2) on Friday and UC San Diego (8-8, 1-3) on Saturday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

After LBSU ran away with the third set, the Wahine got a spark from Kendra Ham, normally a serving and defensive specialist, and Byrd. Ham delivered a career-high four kills on seven swings and two blocks in her turns through the front row.

“Kendra was doing a good job since we started,” UH coach Robyn Ah Mow said. “I think she lines up well on the block with the timing and tempo and I thought that’s what we needed at the time.”

Byrd, the team’s lone senior, entered the match midway through the fourth set to give UH a taller look at the net and contributed a block and three assists in a 5-1 UH run that gave the Wahine command of the set.

Lang re-entered in the back row and fed Wagoner down the stretch to finish with 32 assists and a team-high 13 digs in her fourth double-double of the season.

“I thought maybe Kate needed some time to take a breather, look from the side at what was working,” Ah Mow said of the switch, “and I thought Lana came in and did a great job of setting up the block, touching balls, blocking balls and just giving hittable sets.”

UH libero Tayli Ikenaga popped up 10 digs, hitting double figures for the 10th time this season, and reached a milestone with the 500th of her career.

Outside hitter Jaylen Jordan led Long Beach State with 14 kills in 44 attempts and middle blocker Kameron Bacon was in on six of LBSU’s 10 blocks.

Morgan Chacon, the Beach’s kills leader entering the match, had just three kills through two sets. She sparked the Beach with five in the third set when LBSU hit .400 to UH’s negative-.071 to extend the match. She recorded her 10th kill to hold off UH’s first attempt at match point before Wagoner ended it on her next swing.

“We just decided as a team that the third set was not up to our standards, and we had to raise our standard and know we should not be letting up at any point,” Wagoner said.

UH posted three of its six blocks in the fourth set to contribute to LBSU’s 10 attack errors in the set.

UH hit .233 and overcame 20 hitting errors and 13 service errors. Long Beach State hit .229 with 17 hitting errors and 18 errors from the service line.

The teams traded early runs in the first set before Alexander put away three kills in a 5-1 UH run that gave the Wahine an 18-14 lead. UH remained in control and Alexander closed the set with her sixth kill in 10 error-free attacks.

UH opened up a 22-18 cushion in the second set when Wagoner hammered an overpass off of Alexander’s serve. The set ended in similar fashion, this time with Ham’s serve leading to an overpass to set up Wagoner’s 10th kill of the match.

Chacon found her rhythm early in the third with three kills in in a five-point Beach run. The Beach extended out to a 13-5 lead and went on to cruise to the finish to end UH’s run of sets won at 14 dating back to a reverse sweep of USC on Sept. 10.

Neither team could create separation in the fourth set until UH went on a 5-1 run with two kills from Alexander and a block by Byrd and Tiffany Westerberg to take an 18-15 lead and Wagoner accounted for UH’s final four points.

“I thought Riley did an awesome job,” Ah Mow said. “In the past games she’d get kind of flustered. … She went through it in the beginning of the third, but I thought she stayed even-keeled and she did a great job just staying steady.”