Hawaii bounced from NCAA Tournament after hitting bad stretch

STANFORD, Calif. >> A blazing start suddenly turned frigid and Hawaii’s stay in the NCAA Tournament fizzled just as quickly.

The Rainbow Wahine fired away early in Friday’s first-round match against LSU and surged late to claim the opening set.

The Tigers then capitalized on a deluge of UH attack errors to even the match and rolled through the next two sets to advance to the round of 32 and eliminate the Rainbow Wahine from the bracket.

LSU outside hitter Sanaa Dotson put away 16 kills and the Tigers posted 14 blocks in ending UH’s season with a 21-25, 25-19, 25-20, 25-22 win at Stanford’s Maples Pavilion.

UH outside hitter Riley Wagoner had six of her match-high 20 kills in the first set and middle blocker Amber Igiede finished with 16 kills. But UH tied its season high with 32 errors — 15 coming in the second set alone — and saw a 12-match winning streak end.

The Big West champion Wahine closed coach Robyn Ah Mow’s fifth season at 22-7 after just the fifth one-and-done stay in the program’s 40 NCAA Tournament appearances.

“We can’t win if we’re making more than five or six errors (in a set),” Ah Mow said in the post-match press conference. “So I feel like it was the errors that piled up and piled up and giving someone half the game you’re already starting down.”

Making its first NCAA appearance since 2017, LSU (16-13) earned its first win since 2014 by following a formula that had served Hawaii well for much of the season.

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Along with scoring with their block, touches at the net and back-row defense allowed the Tigers to extend rallies and they either turned or kept momentum with their ability to score out of system.

Dotson turned in her ninth double-double with 18 digs to go along with her kill total. Outside hitter Paige Flickinger complemented Dotson with 11 kills and 10 digs. Middle blocker Anita Anwusi had 10 kills and was in on six blocks.

“We talk about in practice all the time how much of the game is played out of system,” Dotson said. “We really focus, me and Paige, on taking those big risks and taking rips at out-of-system balls and not playing it safe.

“I think I really focused on that tonight regardless of if I hit a few out or got blocked. Staying aggressive the whole time and I think that definitely paid off in the long run.”

The Tigers (16-13), who finished seventh in the Southeastern Conference, will face Stanford, the top seed in the region, in today’s second-round match. The host Cardinal (25-4) advanced with a 25-11, 25-18, 18-25, 25-20 win over Pepperdine in the second match of Friday’s doubleheader.

Wagoner tied her career high with 17 digs in her eighth double-double of the season. Outside hitter Caylen Alexander finished with 15 kills in her NCAA Tournament debut and libero Tayli Ikenaga led the UH defense with 18 digs.

UH’s error total matched the season high set in losses to UCLA on Sept. 4 and USC on Sept. 9 and contributed to a .158 hitting percentage, UH’s lowest mark since a .145 performance at Cal Poly on Oct. 15, the team’s last loss prior to Friday night’s finale.

The night started with promise for UH, the eighth seed in the region, when the Wahine hit .378 to LSU’s .194 in the opening set with just three errors.

The Tigers led 17-16 when UH went on a 7-1 run powered by three kills from Wagoner and two from Igiede. Setter Kate Lang (47 assists, 10 digs) landed a tip to give UH set point at 24-19. LSU fought off the first two before Alexander hammered an overpass of Tiffany Westerberg’s attack to give UH the set.

The Wahine led 3-1 in the second set before the run of errors swamped UH. The Wahine had trouble finding the court on 10 swings and LSU blocks accounted for another five errors. The Tigers needed just eight kills to even the match.

“In Set 1 they were giving our middles a little bit more leeway to hit and they switched that the rest of the game,” Wagoner said. “And I think that was a big change we didn’t adjust to quite as swell, but that might be where the errors came from.”

The teams played to a 15-15 tie in the third set and LSU setter Josie Vondran took a swing on a second contact for a kill to trigger a 6-1 Tigers surge. The run included four more UH errors and LSU led 21-16 on a block by Dotson and middle Alia Williams, who finished with seven block assists.

The Tigers closed out the set on UH’s ninth error of the set and 27th of the night to take the lead in the match.

Anwusi had two kills and was in on two blocks in a 7-2 Tigers run early in the fourth set. UH setter Mylana Byrd, the team’s lone senior, entered to relieve Lang and teamed with Westerberg on a block that cut the LSU lead to 16-15. After a timeout, the Tigers went on a 3-0 run to reclaim control. LSU earned match point at 24-20 and Igiede put away her final two kills to keep UH alive. A service error then ended the match and UH’s season.

“This season has meant a lot to me,” said Igiede, the Big West Player of the Year. “We knew we had a great chance of wining the Big West, but I think what we really wanted was to go far in the tournament.

“It really stings now, to be honest, but the journey was great. But I think we wanted that extra push in the end.”

Stanford 3, Pepperdine 1

Opposite Kendall Kipp put away 21 kills on .410 hitting and ‘Iolani graduate Elena Oglivie had a match-high 17 digs to lead the Cardinal past the Waves.

Outside hitter Caitie Baird added 19 kills on 34 swings, Elia Rubin finished with 12 kills and Stanford hit .377 as a team to set up the matchup with LSU.

Meg Brown led Pepperdine with 10 kills and closed Punahou graduate Scott Wong’s eighth season as head coach at 18-10.