One down, one really tough one to go in the race for a bye in the Big West Tournament.

Playing in the final homestand of her five-year UH career, reigning conference Player of the Year Amber Igiede led the Rainbow Wahine with 14 kills and hit .500 in a 25-17, 29-27, 25-21 sweep of UC San Diego on Friday night.

A SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,982 watched Hawaii win its 20th match of the season (20-8 overall) and improve to 13-4 in conference play to tie Long Beach State for second place.

The Rainbow Wahine will welcome the Beach, who swept UH in September, for senior night today with a UH victory giving it the No. 2 seed in next week’s tournament. With a win, Hawaii would open play Friday in the semifinals. A loss and it would have to play in Wednesday’s first round and win three matches in four days to earn a fourth straight conference title.

“I’m really excited because this is our last home game here in the Stan and senior night is high emotions, but we’re all in it,” said junior Tayli Ikenaga, who had a team-high 13 digs. We’re here to play for the seniors and we know we’re going to come out hard.”

Freshman Tali Hakas gave UH some production from the outside with 12 kills and four digs and middle Kennedi Evans hit .500 with seven kills in 14 swings and and no errors.

Junior Kate Lang had a match-high 29 assists and 11 digs and backup setter Jackie Matias added 17 assists.

The sweep was Hawaii’s 14th of the season and 11th in conference play.

“The last time we played obviously we had two losses here and the energy level and the continued fight through stuff, especially at the end of the second set, was good to see,” Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow said. “They did really good during the week, which led us to one of the best serve passes we’ve had. Dialed in.”

Hawaii had six players record at least four kills, with sophomore Caylen Alexander coming off the bench to hit .308 with seven kills in 13 swings.

Kendra Ham had two of Hawaii’s five aces as UH hit .313 for the match.

Hakas, the reigning Big West Freshman of the Week, reached double-figure kills for the third straight match.

“Been working swinging high,” Hakas said. “I think the connection is starting to work (Coach) keeps telling me to wait, so I need to keep focusing on that.”

Hawaii came out in the fashion Ah Mow likes, blitzing the Tritons 18-10 in the opening set to allow her to go to her bench.

Eleven players saw the court in the opening set, with Hakas leading the way with six kills and Igiede adding five in six swings.

Three points by UCSD pulled it to 23-17, forcing Ah Mow to use a timeout. Out of the break, Alexander hammered a kill from the back middle and Evans dropped one just over the net on the stepout for an eight-point win.

The Tritons, as has been the case for most opposing teams to drop the opening set to UH, made it much tougher in the second.

UH had set point at 24-23 when Sabire Karacaova and Jasmine Saran put down back-to-back kills to give UCSD its first set point of the match.

Evans staved off the first set point and Ham dropped a long kill inside of the back line to make it 26-26.

That allowed Igiede to rotate back into the match and her ninth kill off of a one-armed dig by Ikenaga gave UH the lead.

Lauren Brooker got one to drop to tie it one last time before Ham’s fourth kill of the set and an ace put UH ahead 2-0 for the match.

Karacaova had 10 kills and Lauren Brooker added eight kills, 13 assists and seven digs for the Tritons (17-13, 10-8), whose season ended.

UCSD is in its final transition year to Division I and isn’t eligible for the conference tournament.

Lahainaluna girls volleyball to attend senior night

The Lahainaluna girls volleyball team will travel to Oahu today and be in attendance for tonight’s regular-season finale against Long Beach State.

Thanks to Keith Amemiya and the Luna Strong campaign he has set up as the president of the Downtown Athletic Club of Honolulu, costs have been covered for the team of 12 players and coaches to attend the game. For most of them, it will be the first time visiting the UH Manoa campus.

The Lunas had their season delayed in August due to the deadly wildfires on West Maui that claimed the lives of at least 100 people. Lahainaluna had to forfeit its first six matches and finished the season 0-6.