GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARADVERTISER.COM
The Rainbow Wahine celebrate a point on Nov. 3.
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EUGENE, Ore. >> The Hawaii women’s volleyball team rebounded from a slow start to advance in the NCAA Tournament today at Matthew Knight Arena.
Caylen Alexander put down a match-high 18 kills and Amber Igiede added 14 kills and four blocks for the Rainbow Wahine in a 16-25, 26-24, 25-18, 25-23 win over Iowa State to begin their 30th consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Setter Kate Lang finished with 45 assists, 13 digs and three blocks and Tayli Ikenaga had 16 digs for Hawaii (24-8), which advanced to play host Oregon on Friday at 5 p.m. Oregon swept Southeastern Louisiana this evening.
Maya Duckworth had 15 kills to lead Iowa State (20-10), which hit .480 in the opening set and used a 15-1 run to take an early 1-0 lead.
Hawaii was behind 13-6 in the second set when it finally started to show some life defensively, scrambling for digs and making ISU work for its points.
A Talia Edmonds ace ended the second set in UH’s favor after Hawaii failed to cash in on its first two set points.
Hawaii hit .533 in the third set to take a 2-1 lead and put it away in the fourth after the match was tied 22-22. A service error by Iowa State ended it.
Tali Hakas, who substituted into the match to start the second set, contributed six kills and 14 digs. Riley Wagoner had nine kills and nine digs after being shut out in the first set.
Middle Kennedi Evans was in on seven of UH’s 13 blocks.
Hawaii has advanced to the second round in three of its past four seasons.
