Hawaii entered the week already locked in on a matchup with Cal State Fullerton.
The Titans have likely captured the attention of the rest of the Big West as well early in the conference’s women’s volleyball race.
Voted ninth out of 11 teams in the Big West preseason coaches poll, Cal State Fullerton enters the weekend at 8-3 overall and 2-1 in conference play following a statement win over Long Beach State on Tuesday.
So although UH enters Friday’s meeting in Titan Gym at 43-0 in the all-time series with Cal State Fullerton, the Rainbow Wahine know better than to overlook the defensive-minded Titans.
“Fullerton always plays us tough,” UH assistant coach Kaleo Baxter said. “We’re expecting them to dig a lot of balls and frustrate us, so we have to stick to our game plan.”
The Rainbow Wahine (5-5, 2-0 Big West) departed for the second road trip of the season on Wednesday in advance of the Friday meeting with Cal State Fullerton and Saturday’s match at Long Beach State (6-5, 1-2).
UH’s rivalry with the Beach holds a far more storied history, but Tuesday’s result in Orange County adds intrigue to the meeting between the Wahine and Titans.
Second-year coach Nicole Polster led Cal State Fullerton to a 9-11 Big West record last season for the program’s highest conference win total since 2012, and the Titans enter Friday’s match having won seven of their last eight matches.
In Tuesday’s win over Long Beach State, senior setter Elizabeth Schuster, a cousin of Kansas City Chiefs receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, orchestrated an attack that hit .311 led by senior outside hitter Julia Crawford’s 16 kills on .378 hitting.
Outside hitter Danielle Jeffries went 12-for-15 with no errors and freshman Lolo Fonua also finished with 12 kills while hitting .333. Freshman libero and Kamehameha alumna Nadia Koanui, who already has a Big West defensive player of the week award, led the Fullerton defense with 11 digs and the Titans top the Big West with 15.76 digs per set.
“We followed the game plan, so we got a lot of touches on the block and were able to recycle those balls and just keep going and reset,” Polster said in a postgame video.
While UH is undefeated in the series with Fullerton, the Wahine survived a five-set duel with Fullerton in 2019 and again last year, both at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. The 2019 UH team rallied from a two-set deficit and held off the Titans in the fifth to escape the upset. Last year, Fullerton nearly pulled off a reverse sweep before the Wahine held on in the fifth.
The Wahine head into the 44th meeting coming off a sweeps of UC Davis and UC Riverside in the opening weekend of the Big West season.
UH sophomore Kate Lang set UH to a .356 weekend on the way to her first Big West setter of the week award and Caylen Alexander was named freshman of the week after putting away 15 kills without an error against UC Riverside.
“She is one talented woman. She’s amazing,” Lang said of Alexander. “I’m super excited for her. She definitely deserved freshman of the week. … That goes back to our team’s standard. That’s what we want out of everyone on the team.”
Come Saturday, the Wahine will face Long Beach State for the 58th time and look to extend a nine-match winning streak in the series that has given UH a 32-24-1 advantage.
Tyler Hildebrand, a former LBSU men’s All-American, took over the program after serving as an assistant at Nebraska and has four transfers in a restocked starting lineup led by setter Zayna Meyer (BYU), outside hitter Morgan Chacon (Florida State), middle blocker Callie Schwarzenbach (Nebraska) and Natalie Glenn (Minnesota).
“Playing at Long Beach is always fun,” Baxter said of the visit to the Walter Pyramid. “It’s kind of a crazy environment. Their fans get into it, but we travel well and we’re going to have just as many fans and we’re excited for (this weekend’s matches).”
BIG WEST WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
At Titan Gym; Fullerton, Calif.
Hawaii (5-5, 2-0 Big West) vs. Cal State Fullerton (8-3, 2-1)
>> When: Friday, 4 p.m.
>> Radio: 1500-AM
>> Live stream: ESPN+
