Hawaii and Minnesota got the most out of the first night of their women’s volleyball exhibition series.
The Rainbow Wahine and Golden Gophers traded the first four sets before Minnesota — which reached last season’s NCAA Tournament round of 16 and placed 10th in the final AVCA coaches poll — closed out a 21-25, 25-17, 13-25, 25-18, 15-9 win before a crowd of 816 on Tuesday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
“This is good for (the Wahine), if not they don’t have anything to look forward to,” UH coach Robyn Ah Mow said of the spring matches. “I wish we could have more teams come here and have spring games.”
The Rainbow Wahine and Golden Gophers meet again today at 7 p.m. to wrap up the series.
Minnesota sophomore Mckenna Wucherer put away a match-high 15 kills and All-American Taylor Landfair finished with nine while playing the first three sets.
Outside hitter Caylen Alexander, last season’s Big West Freshman of the Year, led the Rainbow Wahine with 14 kills. Middle blocker Amber Igiede, a third-team All-American last season, posted nine kills on 15 swings and was in on six blocks in her three sets of action.
“I had a lot of fun today, I think the team did too,” Igiede said. “We were like, ‘Let’s just have fun and let’s play hard and work with anything (Ah Mow) gives us.’
“We’ve been playing ourselves for so long during spring, so it’s so exciting and refreshing to play a different team. They went really far in the (NCAA) tournament, so it’s a good team obviously. It was really fun to get extra reps and we get more (today).”
With All-Big West outside hitter Riley Wagoner playing for the UH beach volleyball team this spring, Kendra Ham got a start on the left side and hit .308 with 11 kills in 26 attempts. Libero Tayli Ikenaga finished with 16 digs and four assists.
Kate Lang distributed 37 assists and had two aces, and rotated with Jackie Matias, who didn’t see playing time in the fall, in the last three sets. Matias finished with nine assists and a kill.
“We’ve been working this whole spring adjusting to both of them and they’ve both been working really hard making sure we’re all connecting with them,” Alexander said.
Tiffany Westerberg started at opposite after playing all 29 matches at middle blocker last season. She posted seven kills and had two aces in the first set after not attempting a serve last season.
Westerberg’s first ace of the opening set gave UH a 14-13 lead after the Wahine rallied from an 8-3 deficit. Alexander had three kills in a four-point span to push UH ahead 20-19. The Wahine closed the set with a 5-1 run, with Westerberg’s second ace giving them set point and Igiede ending it with her fourth kill.
“Tiff went from middle, now she’s right side, left side, passing, playing defense. That’s huge for her and she’s doing well,” Ah Mow said.
UH hit .571 in the opening set with 17 kills and one error and didn’t commit a service error, and Alexander went 6-for-7 in the set.
UH had a tougher time finding the court in the second set and hit .000 with 10 errors and Minnesota opened up an 18-8 lead. Igiede was in on three blocks and had a kill in a 5-1 UH run before the Golden Gophers closed out the set.
It was UH’s turn to run away in the third and the Wahine had three aces, two by Lang and another by Alexander, in an 8-2 run. With Matias subbing into the back row to serve and set, the Wahine closed the set on an 11-3 run with Annika de Goede posting two kills and two blocks in Igiede’s five-point service turn.
Wucherer had three consecutive kills and Melani Shaffmaster delivered an ace to spark an 11-3 run and the Golden Gophers ran away with the fourth set to send the match to the fifth.
Minnesota jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the fifth set with the aid of three UH attack errors and led 12-4 after Julia Hanson delivered an ace. UH closed to 13-8, but Minnesota ended the night with its seventh block.
