A fairly new-looking Hawaii women’s volleyball team started a run of four spring exhibition matches with mixed results against one of the top teams from a year ago.

The Rainbow Wahine, who went with five different starters from last season’s NCAA Tournament team, had their hands full against Arizona State, the reigning Big 12 champion that went 30-3 last season and finished 13th in the final AVCA rankings.

Bailey Miller, who transferred to ASU and played her first season with the Sun Devils after two years at West Virginia, put down a match-high 17 kills in the first three sets to lead Arizona State to a 23-25, 25-18, 25-17, 25-17 victory on Monday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

Lois Hansen, a 6-foot-3 opposite transfer with three years of eligibility remaining, and Cha’lei Reid, who would still be a senior at Kahuku if she hadn’t enrolled early, had eight kills apiece to lead UH.

Both teams agreed to play at least four sets prior to the start of Monday’s exhibition, which will continue with another match tonight.

Hawaii will also play Wisconsin in two weeks with the second match happening on Kauai.

“If I had to give it a grade, we lost in four, so maybe a ‘C-’, but it’s not about putting a grade on it. It’s about implementing the things that we’re doing in practice against someone else,” UH associate coach Kaleo Baxter said. “There is a lot of new faces on this team and for the first time in four years, a new setter is running the show and it’s about getting comfortable and getting experience so this is exactly what we wanted.”

Returning sophomore Adrianna Arquette and sophomore Audrey Hollis, a transfer from UC San Diego, took turns at setter duties competing to replace four-year starter Kate Lang.

Arquette, who started the match, had 22 assists, nine digs and three aces.

Hollis, who started the second set and played some in the third with Arquette hitting, had nine assists and six digs.

Reid announced her presence on the Rainbow Wahine volleyball squad when she put away the final four points on kills for Hawaii to take the first set and avoid deuce.

She showed off an array of shorts, going cross-court on the first of her four kills before powering back-to-back kills through the block. She ended a rally on UH’s second set point with a kill high off the hands.

“It was a surreal moment. It’s nice to be here,” Reid said. “I was happy that I was able to be here and play for my team and it was good to have the opportunity.”

Hawaii hit .382 in the first set and then slowly saw its hitting percentage dip over the final three sets, down to .000 in the third and minus-.043 in the fourth.

Middle blocker Miliana Sylvester, one of two returning starters with pin hitter Tali Hakas, put UH ahead 18-17 in the second set with a kill before ASU rattled off eight of the final nine point to even the match.

Both teams made substitutions and the Sun Devils took control of the match, hitting .400 overall with nine aces.

Hakas ended up with seven kills and nine digs and Sylvester and Bri Gunderson, a 6-foot-3 transfer from Eastern Washington who started at the other middle blocker position, had five kills apiece.

Hawaii finished with four blocks.

“It’s getting (the new girls) comfortable with what Wahine volleyball is,” Baxter said. “It’s the grit, it’s the grind and it’s how you buy in to what we are doing here. So far they’ve been great, all four of our transfers and Cha’lei, who graduated early. It’s getting everyone comfortable playing next to each other.”