It was “Think Pink” night and everything continued to be rosy for No. 15 Hawaii. There was no hangover, no letdown and no problem with Cal State Northridge on Saturday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Senior Annie Mitchem, continuing her successful transition from middle to outside hitter, led a balanced attack with 12 kills as the Rainbow Wahine won their 17th consecutive home Big West volleyball match. Junior middle Emily Maglio and sophomore hitter McKenna Granato each added nine kills in the 25-9, 25-15, 25-16 sweep of the Matadors to move a full game ahead of Long Beach State in the standings.
It was as efficient — a season-high .471 — as it was short — 90 minutes — for Hawaii (18-5, 11-1). As 5,534 watched, the Wahine — wearing pink jerseys for breast cancer awareness — held the Matadors under 20 points in all three sets, running that streak to 13 straight where CSUN hasn’t reached 20.
“We went into the match with the mentality that we would have the same respect for CSUN as we did for Long Beach,” senior opposite Nikki Taylor said, referencing Friday’s impressive straight-sets win over the 49ers. “We prepared the same way. We wanted to play really strong against CSUN.”
With the emergence of Mitchem as a threat at one pin, it has somewhat taken the pressure off of Taylor to take the majority of the team’s swings. She took just 12 attempts Saturday night, with seven kills and no errors.
“We’ve been moving people around, but it’s been the same people,” Taylor added. “I think we’ve found our groove, getting a consistent lineup.”
Hawaii coach Dave Shoji, three wins shy of 1,200, agreed.
“Annie is giving us more of a presence on the left,” he said. “We’re contemplating leaving her in the back row for that (3-meter) attack. We’ll work on that this week.”
Hawaii made short work of CSUN, picking up where it let off on Friday, with tough serving and a diverse, efficient offense. The Wahine had four aces and just one hitting error — when Natasha Burns was blocked on a tight set — in rolling in Set 1. That would be the Matadors’ lone block of the match — the Wahine finished with 4.5.
Hawaii’s hitting cooled off a little in Set 2, with three hitting errors, including Mitchem’s first error in two nights. She had 13 kills with no errors in 21 swings against the 49ers, then had six kills on her first 10 swings Saturday before hitting long at 12-8.
Still, CSUN had few answers for the Wahine’s tough serves, with a 7-0 serving run by Mitchem helping pull away at 21-9.
The Matadors found some success after the break, hanging around and trailing just 11-9. Then, just like that, two kills each by Mitchem and Maglio helped Hawaii run away at 16-10.
Typifying the kind of night the Matadors were having was coach Jeff Stork going 0-for-3 when challenging calls using the video replay system.
Shoji was able to go to his bench often, using 16 of 17 available players. Only freshman hitter Kirsten Sibley, who missed some time last month with a sprained right ankle, did not play.
Sophomore middle Casey Castillo, who had been sidelined with a nagging leg injury, made the most of her short court time in Set 3, putting down four kills with no errors in five attempts.
“We took care of business tonight,” Shoji said. “I think the team was mature enough to prepare mentally.
“It was not real pretty, but we played well enough to win.”
Sophomore hitter Aeryn Owens had 10 kills for the Matadors (8-16, 4-8).
Hawaii makes its final regular-season road trip with matches at UC Irvine on Thursday and UC Davis on Saturday. Both the Anteaters (10-16, 5-7) and Aggies (12-12, 5-7) lost at home on Saturday, UCI to UC Santa Barbara and Davis to Cal Poly.
The Wahine then finish out the regular season with home matches against Cal Poly on Nov. 17 and UCSB on Nov. 19.