SEATTLE >> Robyn Ah Mow admittedly had a tough time crafting a postgame speech Friday night.
“I told them in the locker room after the game I can’t talk because I’m probably going to cry,” the University of Hawaii coach said following 137 minutes of wild swings of emotion on the court.
Ah Mow had watched the Rainbow Wahine misfire repeatedly in the first set of Friday’s NCAA Tournament first-round match with Mississippi State then suddenly dominate the next two. The fourth tilted to the 23rd-ranked Bulldogs to send the Wahine to a fifth set for a second straight match.
UH middle blocker Amber Igiede and outside hitter Brooke Van Sickle then powered UH to the finish and the Rainbow Wahine advanced into the tournament’s round of 32 with a 17-25, 25-14, 25-13, 21-25, 15-11 victory in Alaska Airlines Arena.
“We were down the first set and the team just kept going,” Ah Mow said. “That’s the whole thing for our season. They’re always starting off down and they always seem to come back. Just really excited for the team.”
Igiede put away six of her team-high 18 kills in the decisive set and Van Sickle added 16 kills and 14 digs in her return to the Pacific Northwest. Van Sickle had an ace and three kills in the fifth set, the last giving UH match point. Freshman Martyna Leoniak had the finishing honors, scoring from the right side for her fourth kill off the bench to trigger the UH celebration.
The five-set duel came less than a week after the Wahine went the distance with UC Santa Barbara and fell short in a stinging senior night loss at home.
“We learned from that loss and carried it into today,” said Van Sickle, who grew up in Battle Ground, Wash., and had a group of family and friends in the stands. “We started a little slow, but once we started getting in a groove with serve-and-pass it started going more swiftly. Our mentality was more like, ‘OK, that just happened, next ball.’ I feel like we did a really good job of ‘next play.’”
Up next for the Rainbow Wahine will be a matchup with host Washington (25-4) today at 5 p.m. as they aim to advance out of the Seattle sub-regional for the first time in five postseason visits.
The Pac-12 champion Huskies, the No. 15 overall seed in the 64-team bracket, cruised past Brown 25-15, 25-13, 25-20 in Friday’s second match to join UH in the second round.
UH fell to Washington in the second round in 2010, 2012 and 2014 and dropped a five-set duel to Illinois in the first round in 2017 to close Ah Mow’s first season as head coach.
It appeared UH’s 39th tournament appearance might be brief after Friday’s error-filled first set.
Mississippi State, playing in its first NCAA Tournament match in the program’s 47-year history, appeared to be the more composed group as UH committed 10 attack errors while hitting negative-.050 in the opening set.
The Wahine were charged with just 10 more errors over the next four sets while hitting .421 to finish at .289 for the match.
“It came down to our errors in the first set,” Igiede said. “So we really had to maximize our touches on our side and I think our serve and pass was so good after the first set.”
UH first touches, whether from the service line or in reception, flipped the momentum of the match in the second set.
Igiede and fellow middle Skyler Williams accounted for two kills in nine swings with the Wahine operating out of system for much of the first set. When UH’s passing steadied in the second and third sets, UH setter Kate Lang found Williams for seven kills in 10 attempts and Igiede put away eight of 10 to power the Wahine to commanding wins and a 2-1 lead in the match.
“(The Bulldogs) serve really well, they get teams out of system and we’re a team that needs our middles,” Van Sickle said. “We were like, “OK they’re going to serve tough, one ball at a time and let’s just pass it up there, let’s just keep the ball in play.’”
Igiede and Williams also controlled the net defensively, as UH posted 13 blocks to Mississippi State’s five. Williams had three solo blocks among her six for the match and Igiede finished with five.
Hawaii’s ability to keep the ball off the floor in the back row also proved pivotal. The Wahine popped up 63 digs, led by Van Sickle in her 12th double-double of the season. Riley Wagoner finished with 12 and Lang had 10 to go along with 47 assists.
Freshman libero Tayli Ikenaga added nine digs, popping up a tough shot to set up Igiede for a kill to close the third set.
“We said every day we have to go in and hammer defense for an hour (in practice),” Ah Mow said, “and it’s paying off.”
Mississippi State right-side hitter Gabby Waden lived up to her All-SEC credentials with a match-high 20 kills on .372 hitting. But the Bulldogs (25-6) saw a 13-match winning streak and a breakthrough season end after finishing second in the SEC.
“I think Hawaii just started serving the crap out of the ball,” an emotional Mississippi State coach Julie Darty Dennis said. “They stared serving really, really tough and they cut down a whole bunch of attacking errors.
“They were making touches and plays on a ton of balls that are normally kills in our gym. Major credit to them. They were slowing us down in ways we hadn’t seen before.”
While UH spent the week preparing for the speed of Mississippi State’s attack, Washington’s size may be the biggest obstacle today. The Huskies spread out a balanced attack against Brown, led by 6-foot-2 outside hitter Claire Hoffman’s nine kills. Washington’s starting lineup also features 6-4 outside hitter Samantha Drechsel (seven kills) and 6-4 middles Lauren Sanders (five kills) and Marin Grote (six kills, four blocks).
“We obviously know Hawaii after years of playing them and years of hosting them in Seattle,” Washington coach Keegan Cook said. “I thought their experience was going to be a huge factor in this tournament. The first set I wasn’t so sure, I’m sure like all the Hawaii fans were. But after that it felt familiar. It felt like the Hawaii team that’s going to battle and play great defense and put a bunch of pressure on you and put all their heart and emotion into it. … Looking forward to another classic Hawaii-Washington showdown.”
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NCAA Volleyball Tournament
At Alaska Airlines Arena, Seattle
Hawaii (22-7) vs. Washington (25-4)
>> When: Today, 5 p.m.
>> Radio: 1420-AM/92.7-FM
>> Online: ESPN+ monthly subscription required
