Rainbow Wahine volleyball upsets No. 13 San Diego
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hawaii’s Caylen Alexander, Riley Wagoner, Kennedi Evans and Talia Edmonds celebrated a kill by Tali Hakas on Friday.
Senior Amber Igiede dominated the opening two sets before finishing with a match-high 18 kills and four blocks and Caelyn Alexander added 15 kills to lead the Hawaii women’s volleyball team to a 27-25, 25-22, 18-25, 25-22 win over No. 13 San Diego on Saturday.
A SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,576 saw Hawaii come out firing in the opening two sets before closing out the Toreros in four to set up a true tournament championship in the Hawaiian Airlines Rainbow Wahine Classic.
Hawaii (2-0) will go for the title Sunday at 5 p.m. against No. 9 Oregon, which hasn’t dropped a set over its first two matches.
The Rainbow Wahine, who went five sets in Friday’s win over Northwestern, finished off the Torerors with Igiede hammering back-to-back kills to get to 23-20. A USD service error made it 24-21 and forced Toreros coach Jennifer Petrie to use her final timeout.
Haylee Stoner put down her 10th kill to stave off one match point before Kate Lang and Kennedi Evans teamed up for the game-winning block to end it.
Lang had a match-high 49 assists and 10 digs to lead UH, which hit .220 for the match.
