LA JOLLA, CALIF. >> A Big West rule prevented the University of Hawaii band from performing inside Lion Tree Arena on Friday night.
But there was no silencing the surging Rainbow Wahine — and coach Robyn Ah Mow — in a five-set road victory over UC San Diego, 13-25, 18-25, 25-14, 25-12, 15-10.
“Never worried,” outside hitter Caylen Alexander said of the Wahine dropping the first two sets. “This team has a lot of potential. We always win in five. Never any doubt with this team.”
The Wahine, who improved to 8-5 overall and 2-1 in the Big West, are 5-3 in five-set matches.
But there was concern after the Wahine’s serve-and-pass game dissolved in the first two sets. The Tritons scored 14 points on their serves in each of the first two sets. Poor passing nullified quick sets to the middle and led to predictable — and touchable — swings from the pins.
“The first two sets, we didn’t pass the ball,” Ah Mow said. “I don’t know how many sets our middles got in the front. Everything (by the middle hitters) was off the slides because (the passes) were off the net. Our serve-pass game was not there. Lollipops (on serves) to them. They were dime-ing balls. They can run all three hitters. That’s what any team wants to do.”
The break between the second and third sets is shortened to three minutes on the road because there is no extended television intermission. But Ah Mow made the most of her “tunnel talk” with a paint-peeling “chat” with the Wahine.
“The pep talk is the pep talk,” Ah Mow said. “It is what it is.”
The Wahine responded with disruptive serves that led to the Tritons hitting .079 in the final three sets.
“Then we started passing balls,” Ah Mow said. “We passed balls, we got our middles (involved). Pass balls, get the middle, and (the Tritons) blockers get stuck in one-on-one (against pin hitters) all the time. It’s the serve-pass game.”
And after struggling in the first set, Alexander found her form, finishing with a match-high 24 kills on 43 swings.
A week earlier, Alexander exited in the fourth set of a five-set loss to UC Irvine. She did not play in the next night’s sweep of Cal State Fullerton. Alexander took swings during Friday’s pre-match warmups, but was not in the starting lineup.
“It was whatever the team needed,” Alexander said. “I was still out, so I had to come back and fight for my spot. It wasn’t just going to be handed to me.”
Ah Mow said: “She’s absolutely right. That’s stuff you have to work on. It is what it is. That’s exactly how I play my team.”
Alexander entered in the middle of the first set. In the second, the Wahine returned to their usual rotation. And, eventually, setter Kate Lang and Alexander regained their connection.
“I’ve been playing with her the longest on the team except for Tay,” Lang said of defensive specialist Tayli Ikenaga. “She’s easy to play with. She’s a leader.”
As for set placements to Alexander, Lang said, “Give her some height, get it out to the antenna, and she can go to town.”
Alexander said: “I think our connection is great right now. I want her to trust me, so whenever she puts up a set, I’ll swing it.”
Lang served the Wahine’s final five points of the fourth set to force extra play. “I was honestly thinking about putting it in play and making them play volleyball,” Lang said. “I wasn’t thinking about trying to ace them or be aggressive. I was trying to put it in play, and let everybody else do the work for me, and they definitely did.”
In the fifth set, it was Alexander’s turn to launch disruptive serves. Trailing 5-4, Alexander was serving when the Wahine scored six in a row for a 10-5 advantage.
“The goal was to get them out of system,” Alexander said of her unique serve.
“I don’t know what it is,” Ah Mow said. “It’s like a line drive. She just hits it. She has a nice roll, tops it, and it just goes.”
