Nothing worth having ever comes easy. And coming home after a 12-day road trip with a 3-1 record, including two conference wins, was worth all the hard work to make it happen.
No. 11 Hawaii (12-1, 2-0 Big West) had its struggles against Cal State Northridge (5-9, 0-2) on Saturday, many self-inflicted, but still managed to survive and give Robyn Ah Mow her 50th victory as the head coach at her alma mater.
Freshman hitter Hanna Hellvig and senior McKenna Ross each put down 14 kills and the Rainbow Wahine ended the 25-17, 23-25, 25-23, 26-24 battle with the Matadors on a walk-off block, their 10th of the night.
Junior middle Sky Williams was part of three of Hawaii’s final four points, including the match-ender when she teamed with Hellvig to stuff CSUN sophomore hitter Nicole Nevarez and end it after 2 hours and 7 minutes
“It felt amazing to end it like that,” Williams said in a phone call. “I knew I should have done it from the get-go.
“To be 2-0 (in conference) is amazing. But we know tonight was more about what we weren’t doing. We need to be playing like the 11th-ranked team.”
It still goes down as a “W” and the 10th straight over CSUN. The Matadors’ last three matches had gone to five sets “and we didn’t want that,” said Ross, who finished with her career high in kills. “We didn’t want it to go four, either, but five would definitely have been more challenging.
“CSUN defended us well, but if we just take care of what we need to do, we steamroll. It felt super good the way it ended, with a straight-down block. Sky came up big at the end.”
Hawaii appeared to be in control of Set 4 at 18-13, 20-17 and 22-20. CSUN had other ideas, using two Wahine hitting errors and a block of Ross to come within two points of forcing a fifth, leading 23-22.
Williams and freshman hitter Riley Wagoner blocked Nevarez to tie at 23 and the Matadors held off one match point, tying at 24. Williams put down her fifth kill to give the Wahine their second swing at ending it and then joined Hellvig to again block Nevarez.
A Matadome crowd of 942 watched as two other Wahine had career nights. Wagoner turned in her first double-double with a career-best 11 kills with 10 digs, and Hellvig her best in digs with 20.
Senior setter Norene Iosia also had a double-double with 21 assists and 12 digs, her sixth of the season and 50th of her career. Junior hitter Brooke Van Sickle added 10 digs.
For the Matadors, in their first home match of the season, Nevarez had 13 kills and senior setter Kamalu Makekau-Whittaker (Kamehameha-Hawaii) finished with 40 assists and 14 digs.
“All I know is I’m glad we’re going home with two (conference) wins,” Ah Mow said. “Good question what wins it for us, but it’s a win.
“We gave them half the game with errors. We’ve got to get back in the gym and work hard.”
Hawaii hit a season-low .167 with a season-high 32 hitting errors. The Wahine, No. 10 nationally in blocks, were out-blocked for the second time this season — the Matadors had a 12-10 edge.
Hawaii hosts UC Irvine on Friday (3-12, 0-3) and Cal State Fullerton (8-6, 0-3) on Saturday, both starting at 7 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center. Saturday’s match is preceded by the alumnae match at 4:30 p.m. that will celebrate the Wahine’s first national championship 40 years ago (AIAW 1979).
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BIG WEST volleyball
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
Cal Poly 3 0 1.000 — 10 5
UCSB 3 0 1.000 — 13 1
Hawaii 2 0 1.000 1/2 12 1
UC Davis 1 0 1.000 1 9 5
UC Riverside 1 0 1.000 1 5 7
CSUN 0 2 .000 21/2 5 9
LBSU 0 2 .000 21/2 3 11
CS Fullerton 0 3 .000 3 8 6
UC Irvine 0 3 .000 3 3 12
Saturday
Hawaii def. CSUN, 25-17, 23-25, 25-23, 26-24
Cal Poly def. UC Irvine, 25-18, 25-23, 25-18
UC Santa Barbara def. CSU Fullerton, 25-15, 25-13, 25-17
Today
UC Riverside at UC Davis
Friday
UC Irvine at Hawaii, 7 p.m., Stan Sheriff Center
UC Davis at UC Santa Barbara
UC Riverside at Cal Poly
