Rainbow Wahine barely beat TCU, will face Aggies

COLLEGE STATION, Texas >> Everything is bigger in Texas.

Friday night, big nearly became huge.

That Texas two-step that Hawaii wanted to do in the NCAA volleyball tournament — that of winning both matches here in Reed Arena — nearly turned into one of the largest stumbles in Rainbow Wahine postseason history.

It took big swings and bigger hearts four time zones removed from home for Hawaii (27-1) to advance to today’s second-round match against host Texas A&M (23-7). Junior opposite Nikki Taylor dug herself out of hitting negative .308 in Set 1 to come up big at the end, including putting down the match-ender for her 21st kill, to help push the Wahine past TCU 17-25, 25-23, 24-26, 25-21, 15-13.

Senior middle Olivia Magill added a career-high 19 kills and Hawaii put what could have been a devastating collapse in Set 3 to win its 22nd straight. Sophomore hitter Kalei Greeley had a season-high 16 kills and senior hitter Tai Manu-Olevao 14, including five kills with no errors in six swings in Set 5, as the Rainbow Wahine avoided what would have been their earliest exit since 1997, when they were swept by Loyola Marymount in the first round.

“It was nice to see that everyone had that drive to win,” said Magill, who had two solo blocks and two block assists. “Set 3 was disappointing. That showed a lack of maturity.

“I’m proud of the fight we had and how we came together. We’re excited for tomorrow.”

That tomorrow would never have come without career nights from other Wahine. Sophomore middle Emily Maglio had a career-high 13 kills, Greeley had a career-high 17 digs for her third double-double, sophomore libero Savanah Kahakai tied her career high in digs with 23.

After keeping its Set 2 record perfect, Hawaii was poised to take the third, serving for Set 3 at 24-19 .. and 24-20 … 24-21 … 24-22 … 24-23. The Horned Frogs had other ideas and the Wahine couldn’t get out of a bad rotation as TCU’s Jillian Bergeson served for seven straight in winning 26-24.

“I had called both timeouts earlier, so I didn’t have one left,” said Hawaii coach Dave Shoji, celebrating his 69th birthday. “I kind of second-guessed myself at the end, wished I had one back.

“We felt we had Game 3 and couldn’t close it out. But we couldn’t dwell on losing it and did what we needed to do in Game 4.”

It appeared Hawaii had the fifth well in hand, pulling away at 14-11. TCU crept back to within 14-13 and “Game 3 was going through my mind,” he said, calling a timeout. “We didn’t need to talk about that. We needed to talk about the next point.”

Taylor punctuated a rally with a bullet from the right, ending that marathon after 2 hours and 35 minutes. The Wahine had just one hitting error in Set 5, hitting .483, and getting all of their points on kills. Both Taylor and Manu-Olevao had five kills with no errors and Magill four kills with no errors.

With Manu-Olevao again struggling on serve-receive early, Shoji subbed in freshman Casey Castillo as well as freshman McKenna Granato for Greeley in the back row. That lasted only in Set 1.

“We didn’t think that was going to be the solution, was not going to be the way we’d win the match,” Shoji said. “We know teams are going to go after Tai (with serves) and I took her out, giving her time to think about things. She had to get her confidence back.

“Eventually she was a rock. She passed well when we needed it at the end.”

It took Hawaii a while to find a rhythm as a team and Taylor admitted it did for her individually. After two kills and six errors in Set 1, Taylor said, “I wasn’t working enough to get my feet to the ball. It was more stuff that I needed to do, although TCU’s block was big and well-formed.”

The match featured two of the top teams nationally in blocks, Hawaii No. 1 and TCU No. 9. But for the sixth time this season, the Wahine were outblocked, this time 14.5-8 by the Horned Frogs; neither team had a block in Set 5.

TCU went the last part of the match without one of their leaders, junior Ashley Smith, who went down with an apparent knee injury with Hawaii leading 20-17 in Set 4. Smith finished with nine kills and 13 digs.

“I couldn’t be more proud of my team,” first-year TCU coach Jill Pape Kramer said. “I loved the way we battled back in the third and the way we kept battling after losing our best player, Ashley.

“(Down 24-19 in Set 3), it’s hard to come back like that, much less against a team like Hawaii. They just kept believing in what they were doing. It may have been our best defensive match all year, with maybe the exception of our match against Texas (a 3-0 victory over the Longhorns).”

Texas A&M 3, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 0

The Aggies played lights-out defense, with 70 digs in the 89-minute sweep of the Islanders, 25-16, 27-25, 25-14. Sophomore hitter Kiara McGee had 11 kills and offensive-minded sophomore setter Stephanie Aiple kept Corpus Christi guessing all match with six kills.

“I’m relieved to have that one completed,” Aggies coach Laurie Corbelli said. “We knew they were going to serve bullets at us (the Islanders, 31-5, had five aces) and we were able to regroup at the end of Set 2.

“I think our match with Hawaii is going to be a great battle — we match up well, teams with similar styles. We’ll have to get our serve-receive going to run our offense.”

Nothing that the Aggies did Friday night changed Shoji’s mind coming into the week.

“They’re big and physical,” he said. “I hope we have enough left.”

Hawaii def. TCU, 17-25, 25-23, 24-26, 25-21, 15-13

Service Aces — TCU 4 (Bergeson, Mikals, K. Smith, Sunstrum). Hawaii 4 (Anderson 2, Manu-Olevao, Taylor). Service errors — TCU 1 (Bergeson). Hawaii 7 (Taylor 4, Manu-Olevao, Anderson, Kahakai). Assists — TCU 63 (Heist 30, K. Smith 25, A. Smith 25, Martin, Mikals, Pickens). Hawaii 78 (Higgins 65, Kahakai 5, Koelsch 4, Greeley 2, Taylor, Anderson). T — 2:35. Officials —Mary Blalock, David Dufrene. A — N/A.