Rainbow Wahine volleyball team rallies to give coach Robyn Ah Mow 100th win

Hawaii middle blocker Amber Igiede put away a career-high 24 kills to help give Rainbow Wahine coach Robyn Ah Mow her 100th career victory — a five-set win over UC Davis today in Davis, Calif.

After a slow start, Igiede helped power the Big West-leading Rainbow Wahine (14-6, 11-1) to their third five-set win of the season, 16-25, 25-12, 28-26, 19-25, 15-9, at the University Credit Union Center.

Igiede was in on seven of UH’s nine blocks, teaming with Riley Wagoner for a block on match point.

Freshman outside hitter Caylen Alexander posted six of her 18 kills in the pivotal third set and setter Kate Lang had five kills to go along with 50 assists.

Opposite Braelyn Akana contributed nine kills on 16 attempts. Wagoner struggled offensively for most of the match with five kills and five errors, but the UH floor captain put away two kills late in the fifth set, had 11 digs and teamed with Igiede on the block to end the match.

Libero Tayli Ikenaga led the UH defense with 14 digs and Kendra Ham added 12. Ham’s third ace of the night gave UH match point.

UC Davis (9-13, 4-8) threatened to snap a 16-match losing streak in the series with UH led by outside hitter Demari Webb’s season-high 21 kills in 44 attempts. Middle blocker Josephine Ough added 11 kills and was in on seven of the Aggies’ 11 blocks.

After a 1-1 tie, UC Davis led for the remainder of the opening set. UH had one kill and four errors in its first 12 attacks and the Aggies opened up a 12-5 lead on an ace by Casi Newman. Alexander’s first three kills and three more from Lang helped the Wahine close to 17-15. But Webb contributed three kills in an 8-1 UC Davis run to close out the set.

UH flipped its fortunes with an 8-1 run to start the second set. Ham delivered two aces, and Igiede had two kills and two blocks in the opening surge. The Wahine went on to roll to their most lopsided set win of the season while hitting .458 to UC Davis’ .111.

After two blowouts, the third set saw 10 ties before UH converted on its fourth set-point opportunity to take the lead in the match. UC Davis erased a five-point deficit to catch the Wahine at 21-21 on an ace by Olivia Utterback. UH twice earned set point on kills by Alexander, but Webb answered for UC Davis to force deuce each time. An error by Utterback gave UH another set point at 27-26, and this time Wagoner was able to finish for the Wahine.

The Aggies never trailed in the fourth set, closing it with a 4-1 run to send UH to a fifth for the fifth time this season.

Two more kills from Igiede and a UC Davis error gave UH a 3-0 lead before the Aggies rallied to tie it at 5-5. UH edged away again and led 11-7 on Igiede’s 23rd kill. After UC Davis closed to 11-9, kills from Igiede and Wagoner and Ham’s ace set up the walk-off block.

The Rainbow Wahine completed a sweep of the road trip and return home to face Long Beach State on Friday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. The Beach (14-6, 9-3) knocked off Cal Poly (12-10, 9-3) in five sets today and will bring an eight-match winning streak to Manoa.