Photo Gallery: UH vs. Arizona

Just when 10th-ranked Hawaii was about to "uno, dos, adios" out of town, Arizona threw up a speed bump.

The Rainbow Wahine held off the Wildcats 25-20, 25-17, 22-25, 25-23 to win the Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Volleyball Challenge once again Saturday.

Hawaii (8-1) takes a six-match win streak on its first road trip to next week’s Shocker Classic, in Wichita, Kan. — along with a newfound balance.

For the first time this season, four Wahine collected double-digit kills, led by All-American Emily Hartong’s 21.

The major reason for that depth was senior setter Mita Uiato, who earned every bit of her first most outstanding player honor.

"Mita was spreading out our offense and more people were getting the ball and working for it," Hartong said. "That frees up the other hitters and takes pressure off everyone hitting. It’s nice to see that."

The depth disappeared in the final moments. Hawaii could not close out the third set, but roared to a 23-16 advantage in the fourth, then lost its way.

Arizona scored four in a row to force UH coach Dave Shoji to call his final timeout. Hartong dropped her 20th kill to get to match point, then got blocked three straight times.

"I told Mita to set her because she’s going to get a kill down the stretch," Shoji said. "It was not her best match. She got blocked too many times, but when the match is on the line you’ve got to go to your best player."

With the Wildcats a point from forcing overtime, Hartong wound up for the 53rd time and blasted the ball off 6-foot-8 blocker Ashley Harris. The ball landed in the second row, ending it after 2 hours, 11 minutes.

"I just thought ‘hit high,’ " a weary Hartong said. "I don’t know how tall she is."

Hartong was also included on the all-tournament team along with Kalei Adolpho. The two-sport junior from Molokai hit .574, with a career-high 14 kills Saturday.

Sophomore Tai Manu-Olevao and freshman Nikki Taylor provided 11 kills apiece — also career highs.

Ultimately, Hawaii needed them all to win its 16th Challenge in 19 tries, before a Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 7,856.

"Mita can get the ball to anybody on almost any play, so it’s good to have," Shoji said. "I think we’re seeing a transformation of Nikki Taylor and Tai. They are becoming players right before our eyes. That’s encouraging."

Arizona’s only other loss came against then-20th-ranked Kansas. That was with former Wahine Jane Croson.

Coach Dave Rubio chose not to bring Croson back to Hawaii. She was second on the team in kills when Arizona left her in Tucson. She remains second on the team in kills because none of the Wildcats came up with more than eight against UH, with the glaring exception of Madi Kingdon.

The junior took more than 40 percent of her team’s swings and had nearly half its kills (19). But the Wildcats — whose starters are all 6-foot-1 and up with the exception of freshman setter Penina Snuka, who played her senior year at Kahuku — outblocked UH 15.5 to 6.

"They have a lot of talent and they started to play like they should play in the third game," Shoji said. "We played OK the first two games, but they weren’t very good. Then they started to block us. It’s a different match when they block you.

"We had a lot of chances to put them away, we just couldn’t make some plays. We somehow won, not because we were good."

The Wildcats had to wait more than an hour to take their first lead, in a third set that was tied 17 times. They scored six of the last seven to take it, hitting .419 in the set.

Hawaii answered its first loss in 13 sets by breaking to an 8-3 advantage in the fourth, forcing Arizona to burn both timeouts in the first seven minutes.

It was identical to the second set, when the Wahine raced to a 9-4 lead, but this one almost ended badly for Hawaii.

Northwestern 3, Portland State 0

Kayla Morin put down 12 kills and Savanna Paffen 10 as the Wildcats rebounded from Friday’s poor hitting against Hawaii (.042) to hit .400 against the Vikings. Paffen had no hitting errors in 21 swings (.476), and Stephanie Holthus just missed a double-double, finishing with nine kills and 13 digs.

For PSU, Brigid Campbell had seven kills and Radford High graduate Kaeli Patton four kills and four digs.

All-tournament team

Stephanie Holthus, Northwestern; Olivia Magill, Arizona; Kaeli Patton, Portland State; Kalei Adolpho, Hawaii; Madi Kingdon, Arizona; Emily Hartong, Hawaii; Mita Uiato, Hawaii (Most Valuable Player)