A reverse sweep over Southern California jumpstarted Hawaii’s 2022 season after a 2-5 start.
Avoiding a reverse sweep keeps this year’s Rainbow Wahine volleyball team on the verge of a Top 25 ranking.
Hawaii staved off match point on the first of two blocks involving senior Amber Igiede, and Caylen Alexander ended a three-hour affair with her 13th kill to give Hawaii a pulsating 25-19, 25-22, 24-26, 17-25, 17-15 win over the Trojans on Thursday night.
A SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,058 watched Hawaii reverse its fortunes against a Pac-12 school just four days after getting swept by No. 6 Oregon.
It certainly wasn’t easy, as USC stormed back from a 2-0 deficit and had match point in the fifth set before the reigning Big West Player of the Year Igiede once again came to UH’s rescue.
“I feel like in the fifth set that’s the whole stay in the play thing,” Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow said. “I keep telling them if the ball doesn’t touch the ground we still can get a touch. I felt like we had a lot of those in the fifth set.”
Igiede led Hawaii with a match-high 16 kills and hit .357 with eight blocks. Down the stretch, it was Hawaii’s best player against USC’s best, All-America outside hitter Skylar Fields, who led the Trojans with a match-high 26 kills on 80 swings.
Fields got USC back into the match with 15 of her kills in the two set wins, but Igiede got the last laugh, closing with two blocks and a kill to make it 16-15 to set up the final point.
“With a hitter like that, she’s going to get her points,” said senior libero Talia Edmonds, who had a match-high 25 digs. “It’s about the ones that they are a little out of sorts. What are we doing with the balls that aren’t a perfect, in-system set to her? How are we capitalizing on balls like that?”
Fields finished the match hitting .150 and Hawaii used a decided advantage at the service line with 10 aces and seven service errors.
USC had four aces and 19 service errors.
Alexander tied a career high with five aces, including three in a row in the opening set for UH, which entered the week the first team outside of the Top 25. USC was ranked No. 22 to start the season before losing two matches to ranked opponents.
“I think we realized that a big piece of winning against USC was serving tough,” Alexander said. “That was our main focus. Just going behind the service line and realizing this was our time to capitalize and get points, and that’s how we were so aggressive tonight.”
After a rare match without a single ace against Oregon on Sunday, Hawaii changed that in a hurry against the Trojans.
UH had three separate scoring runs of four points in the opening set. Setter Kate Lang served consecutive aces for a 12-8 advantage and Alexander had three in a row to build the lead to 17-9.
USC pulled to 19-17 on a rare third hitting error in a set for Igiede, but a USC service error and a block by Igiede brought the momentum back to the home side of the net.
Kennedi Evans and Tali Hakas combined for UH’s second block to end the set.
Hawaii hit negative in the second set but still managed to pull it out thanks to seven USC service errors.
The Trojans led by as many as three points twice in the set but both times proceeded to immediately serve the ball out.
The final error proved to be too much, as Lang followed it with her third ace of the match to put UH ahead 23-21.
Hakas answered Kalyah Williams’ kill to make it 24-22 and a hitting error ended it to put Hawaii ahead 2-0.
Fields woke up in the third set with nine of her 17 kills, including one at set point to tie the game at 24-all.
Emily Fitzner caught a break with a serve that caught the top of the net and bounced over onto Hawaii’s side for an ace, and a Riley Wagoner hitting error kept Hawaii from finishing a sweep.
“Going into the third (set) things just wasn’t happening for us,” Ah Mow said. “The passing breaking down, defensive balls dropping, I think our serving got a little looser, but I’m very happy that we won.”
The two teams will play again Saturday at 7 p.m., with Hawaii looking for its first 4-1 start to the season since opening 2019 with 10 straight wins.
Hawaii hasn’t been in the Top 25 since reaching an NCAA regional semifinal to end that season.
HAWAII DEF. USC
25-19, 25-22, 24-26, 17-25, 17-15
TROJANS(1-3)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Fields 5 26 14 80 .150 4 7 29.5
Miller 5 10 1 21 .429 4 10 16.0
Williams 5 8 3 34 .147 6 2 11.0
Pietsch 4 8 2 22 .273 3 0 8.0
Ariail 5 6 2 16 .250 1 1 6.5
Smith 2 2 1 15 .067 1 0 2.0
Tuaniga 5 1 1 3 .000 14 2 2.0
Geoghegan 2 0 0 0 .000 1 0 0.0
Verbiest 5 0 0 0 .000 13 0 0.0
Snook 5 0 0 0 .000 12 0 0.0
Th.-Nathan 3 0 0 1 .000 1 0 0.0
Trubint 5 0 0 0 .000 21 0 1.0
Fitzner 3 0 0 0 .000 1 0 1.0
Match 5 61 24 192 .193 82 22 77.0
RAINBOW WAHINE (3-1)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Igiede 5 16 5 30 .367 7 7 21.5
Alexander 5 13 5 46 .174 9 2 20.0
Wagoner 5 12 5 44 .159 13 0 13.0
Evans 5 5 7 23 -.087 0 2 6.0
Hakas 5 4 9 20 -.250 18 4 6.0
Guersching 2 2 1 10 .100 2 1 2.5
Lang 5 1 0 6 .167 9 2 5.0
Matias 1 0 0 0 .000 1 0 0.0
Edmonds 5 0 0 0 .000 26 0 0.0
Ikenaga 3 0 0 0 .000 2 0 0.0
Match 5 53 32 179 .117 87 18 74.0
Service aces — USC 4 (Williams 2, Fitzner, Trubint). Hawaii 10 (Alexander 5, Lang 3, Igiede, Wagoner). Service errors — USC 19 (Miller 5, Verbiest 4, Fields 3, Tuaniga 3, Fitzner, Pietsch, Trubint, Williams). Hawaii 7 (Wagoner 4, Edmonds 2, Guersching). Assists — USC 59 (Tuaniga 47, Trubint 8, Snook 2, Verbiest 2). Hawaii 49 (Lang 44, Edmonds 3, Alexander, Ikenaga). Block solos — USC 1 (Miller).
Hawaii 2 (Alexander, Igiede). Ball handling errors — USC none. Hawaii 2 (Lang 2). Reception errors — USC 19 (Trubint 4, Geoghegan 2, Verbiest 2, Williams 2). Hawaii 4 (Alexander, Edmonds, Evans, Ikenaga). T—2:59. A—5,475. Officials—Dickson Chun, Randy Rubonal, Kerwin Stenstrom, Mark Nakanishi.
