The Hawaii women’s volleyball team finally avoided a bad start and used it to hold off Pepperdine 25-16, 25-22, 22-25, 21-25, 15-9 in a marathon match lasting nearly three hours tonight at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

Junior Caylen Alexander had a team-high 25 kills and senior libero Tayli Ikenaga posted a career-high 33 digs to give her 60 in the last two matches for Hawaii (3-1), which earned a two-match split against the Waves in front of a season-high crowd of 5,266.

Ikenaga fittingly ended the match with an ace as Hawaii scored seven the final eight points to avoid a heartbreaking defeat.

It was the first match in which UH didn’t lose the first set by double digits as freshman Victoria Leyva was inserted into the starting lineup and had 12 digs.

Sophomore Stella Adeyemi, who came off the bench, hit a career-best .370 with 13 kills.

Middle Jacyn Bamis added 11 kills on 35 swings and was in on five of Hawaii’s seven blocks.

>> PHOTOS: Hawaii vs. Pepperdine

Birdie Hendrickson had 10 of her team-high 25 kills in the third set to help the Waves (1-3) getting swept for a second time this season.

Grace Chillingworth added 16 kills for Pepperdine, which forced a fifth set for the second straight match as Hawaii struggled to put down balls.

The fifth set was tied at 8-all when UH went on a five-point run during which Pepperdine used both of its timeouts.

Alexander had six kills in the fifth set with her last one giving UH match point that Ikenaga aced for the win.

UH is back on the court on Tuesday hosting Texas State at 7 p.m.