Warning siren or alarm clock?
Hawaii is preferring to view Sunday’s five-set victory at UC Irvine — where the Rainbow Wahine were down 0-2 and in danger of losing to the Anteaters for the first time in 39 meetings — as the latter. One where Hawaii kept hitting the snooze button after leading 6-1, 14-6 and 21-20 in Set 2, losing 25-22.
The Wahine eventually woke up, pulling it out 23-25, 22-25, 25-23, 25-20, 15-11 and avoiding what many considered as a bad loss. A very bad loss that would have impacted Hawaii’s hopes of finishing at least second in the Big West.
“It was pretty crazy,” senior setter Faith Ma’afala said Wednesday as the team prepared for Big West home matches against Cal State Fullerton and UC Riverside. “Definitely it should never have gone five.
“Every game we need to come out with the mentality of get in and get out in three.”
It has been straight sets in six of Hawaii’s 11 matches with the Wahine sweeping as many as they have been swept: 3. With the Titans (6-9, 0-3) on Friday and the Highlanders (5-9, 0-3) on Saturday coming in as the two bottom teams the Big West, the goal is not just to win 3-0 but look good doing so.
“We need to be disciplined every game, every point,” junior setter-hitter Norene Iosia said. “We need to do it against teams like the ones this week because we’ll need to do it against teams like (conference leaders) Cal Poly (13-1, 3-0) and Long Beach State (10-5, 2-0).
“We don’t need to go five to win games. We should do it in three.”
Hawaii’s struggles are nothing compared to those of this week’s opponents. After opening 6-1, Fullerton has dropped its last eight, and has been swept in all three of its Big West matches. UCR opened 4-1 but has gone 1-8 since. Riverside lost senior hitter Ka’iulani Ahuna (Kamehameha-Hawaii) to an injured left knee at 8-8 of Set 1 at Long Beach State in the conference opener Sept. 18. Ahuna is the team’s kills leader, but had not been cleared to play against Hawaii as of Tuesday.
Under second-year coach Robyn Ah Mow-Santos, the Wahine have played 12 five-set matches, going 3-6 last season and 1-2 this year. Picking up the first of 2018 was important for the team, the former Wahine All-American said.
“Winning is always important but this was good for them because they had been on a roller coaster (Sunday),” Ah Mow-Santos said. “They had been up-down, up-down, up-down. They were down 0-2, down in the third (5-0) and then they were up the rest of the way. They pushed at the end. It was good for their confidence.
“Mentally it was awesome. If everyone just does their jobs, we’re OK.”
The performance of senior hitter McKenna Granato was key to the rally. She had six of her season-high 24 kills in Set 5, had three of her career-high five aces in Set 4, while adding a season-high 15 digs when surpassing the 600-dig mark.
Turning in another key late performance was junior hitter McKenna Ross, who came in at 10-10 in Set 3 and finished with a career-high 11 kills, seven in Set 4.
