Wahine volleyball team closes out season-opening with victory over Texas State
CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM
Hawaii’s Caylen Alexander digs the ball as teammate Stella Adeyemi looks on in the first set of Saturday’s match against the Texas Bobcats.
The Hawaii women’s volleyball team closed out an impressive season-opening homestead with a victory just like most of the others this season.
Junior Caylen Alexander ended Hawaii’s fifth five-set match of the season with her career-high 38th kills in 74 swings to lead the Rainbow Wahine over Texas State 25-22, 19-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-12 tonight in front of a SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,951.
Junior middle blocker Jacyn Bamis added 10 kills and hit .318 for Hawaii, which won its fourth straight match and improved to 6-1 for the season entering its first road trip next week beginning Tuesday at UNLV.
Tali Hakas had a match-high 18 digs to lead another solid defensive effort for the Rainbow Wahine, who hit a season-best .421 in the opening set.
A night after hitting a season-low .118 in a win over the Beavers, Alexander started the match with eight kills in her first 13 swings without an error.
Hawaii dropped the second set to miss out on an opportunity to earn its first sweep, but came back to close out Texas State in another classic.
Setter Kate Lang finished with 56 assists, 17 digs and five kills and fellow senior Tayli Ikenaga posted the first double-double of her career with 12 digs and a career-high 12 assists.
MJ McCurdy had 17 kills and Samantha Wunsch added 16 to lead the Bobcats, who went 1-2 on their trip to Hawaii with both losses coming to the Rainbow Wahine.
