Three weeks into the volleyball season, the Hawaii women’s volleyball team closed the chapter against Pac-12 opponents with mixed results.
UH finished 2-2 against the West Coast powerhouse league with UCLA finishing off the Rainbow Wahine 23-25, 25-15, 25-23, 25-22 on Sunday to wrap up an undefeated run in the Outrigger Volleyball Challenge.
Grayce Olson hit .364 with a team-high 16 kills and Iman Indiaye and Cheridyn Leverette added 13 kills apiece for the Bruins (7-1), who used their size and took advantage of a couple of miscues to pull out the final two tightly contested sets before a SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 5,712.
“Going into the last (at) 20-20, we’ve got to make sure the errors are cut,” Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow said. “We just need to dial in on what we needed to do. The blocking was not that great today. I feel like if there’s big girls on the other side but if they are sitting quick balls and right on the tape and in our wheelhouse to block we need to be in the right place.”
UCLA outhit Hawaii .268 to .187 and held a 12-8 advantage in blocks.
UH (5-3) was within striking distance at 22-22 in the third set and 20-20 in the fourth set but couldn’t pull out either one to at least force it to a fifth set.
“I think they just took care of things better on their side and just handled the ball better than we did,” said senior hitter Riley Wagoner, who had a match-high 17 kills. “We never really made a change that could put us on top.”
Caylen Alexander had a double-double with 15 kills and 11 digs and Amber Igiede had 12 kills, seven digs and five blocks but hit .143 as UCLA’s block keyed on UH’s middles.
Hawaii also struggled to handle a few tip shots from UCLA’s outside hitters that the Rainbow Wahine normally are able to handle on defense.
“That’s the whole thing we talk about in the locker room is IQ,” Ah Mow said. “Watch the arm, watch the arm. Does it drop? Does it stay up top? Then you can read it and play better defense.”
Hawaii has played half of its games so far this season against Pac-12 teams. UH beat Southern California twice and lost to Oregon in its only three-set defeat.
“I think it’s always good playing against different styles of volleyball,” said junior setter Kate Lang, who finished with a game-high 40 assists. “The Big West has sprinkles of height with certain teams so that’s good preparation as well.”
Despite nine hitting errors and three service errors, Hawaii held on to take the first set as Alexander went high off the block for her second kill to close it out.
UH put down 18 kills in the first set with Wagoner continuing her recent hot stretch with eight of them in 12 swings.
Hawaii led by as many as six before UCLA crawled back and briefly took the lead with a 6-0 run with Igiede on the bench.
An ace by Alexander and a Wagoner kill put UH back in front 21-20 and got Igiede back on the court to finish the set.
UCLA exploded to a 12-3 lead in the second set only to see Hawaii chip away at the lead. Wagoner’s ninth kill of the match and 800th of her career brought Hawaii within four at 17-13.
Igiede had a one-on-one opportunity to inch even closer but hit it wide of the court and Everette followed with ace off the top of the net to spur a 5-0 run that helped to end it.
Neither team led by more than five points the rest of the way.
Hawaii has shown improvement offensively with Sunday’s .187 hitting percentage its lowest since hitting .159 or worse in three of its first four matches.
“I think the one thing we did good today was we swung at balls,” Ah Mow said. “One time I think it was 6-foot-4 across the board. That’s the one thing I thought we did really good was take swings instead of tip, tip, tip.”
Hawaii will hit the road for the first time this season to play in the Fight in the Fort tournament in Fort Worth, Texas, beginning Thursday against host TCU.
Pepperdine 3, Liberty 1
Grace Chillingworth hammered a match-high 18 kills and 13 digs and Birdie Hendrickson added a double-double of her own with 14 kills and 14 digs in the Waves’ 25-22, 25-18, 24-26, 25-12 win over the Lady Flames.
Vanessa Polk hit .615 with 11 kills for Pepperdine (2-6), which snapped a three-match losing streak.
Kamryn Bacus had nine kills, eight digs and three aces for Liberty (7-2), which won one set over its last two matches following a five-set victory over Hawaii on Thursday.
UCLA DEF. NO. 23 HAWAII
23-25, 25-15, 25-23, 25-22
BRUINS (7-1)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Olson 4 16 4 33 .364 0 3 17.5
Ndiaye 4 13 3 34 .294 5 1 15.5
Leverete 4 13 4 36 .250 8 2 18.0
Dodson 4 6 1 9 .556 2 3 7.5
Becker 4 2 3 8 -.125 2 6 5.0
Pak 4 1 1 6 .000 2 3 4.5
Tufono 2 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1.0
Dueck 4 0 0 0 .000 16 0 0.0
Breon 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1.0
Mullen 4 0 1 1 -1.000 2 0 0.0
Lutz 4 0 0 0 .000 5 0 1.0
Hendrickson 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
MATCH 4 51 17 127 .268 41 18 71.0
RAINBOW WAHINE (5-3)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Wagoner 4 17 10 40 .175 6 2 18.0
Alexander 4 15 6 32 .281 11 1 17.5
Igiede 4 12 8 28 .143 7 5 15.5
Hakas 4 7 3 14 .286 3 1 7.5
Evans 4 5 2 11 .273 1 0 7.0
Matias 1 0 0 1 .000 0 0 0.0
Guersching 1 0 2 5 -.400 0 0 0.0
Lang 4 0 0 3 .000 6 1 1.5
Edmonds 4 0 0 0 .000 16 0 1.0
MATCH 4 56 31 134 .187 50 10 68.0
Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d: digs; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills plus blocks plus aces).
Service aces — UCLA 8 (Leverette 3, Ndiaye 2, Tufono, Breon, Lutz). Hawaii 4 (Alexander, Igiede, Lang, Edmonds).
Service errors — UCLA 8 (Leverette 2, Ndiaye, Becker, Pak, Tufono, Dueck, Breon). Hawaii 8 (Wagoner 3, Hakas 2, Edmonds 2, Alexander).
Assists — UCLA 50 (Pak 25, Mullen 20, Dueck 4, Lutz). Hawaii 54 (Lang 40, Matias 4, Edmonds 4, Wagoner 3, Alexander, Igiede, Hakas). Block solos — UCLA 3 (Pak 2, Leverette). Hawaii 3 (Evans 2, Alexander). Ball handling errors — UCLA none. Hawaii none. Reception errors — UCLA 4 (Dueck 2, Leverette, Becker). Hawaii 8 (Alexander 4, Edmonds 3, Igiede). T—2:22. A—5,712. Officials—Wayne Lee, Dickson Chun, Matthew Tsutsumi, Randy Rubonal.
