For the Hawaii women’s volleyball team, it’s all about surviving at this point of the season.
As evidenced by Sunday’s 25-22, 17-25, 28-30, 25-19, 15-12 win over Cal State Northridge, the record of their opponent doesn’t seem to matter.
The Rainbow Wahine were outhit .239 to .213, outblocked 10-8 and out-aced 10-7, but still managed to improve to 6-3 in five-set matches when Stella Adeyemi’s 13th found the CSUN side of the floor.
Hawaii avoided its first-ever loss to the Matadors (7-14, 2-8) inside of SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
A crowd of 3,990, who wasn’t expecting to stay for a match lasting 3 hours, 9 minutes, at least got to go home knowing UH (13-7, 7-3) moved into tie for second place in the conference standings entering the month of November.
“We told the team before the match their record is not an indication of their talent. I think they’ve taken almost every top team in the Big West to four or five (sets),” Hawaii associate coach Kaleo Baxter said after the match. “When we’re really good between the ears and we play with a lot of passion, we’re one of the top 25 teams in the nation I’d say. But when we’re not, when we have a lapse in discipline and executing what we need to do, we have some extended matches.”
Hawaii would currently earn one of the two seeded byes into the semifinals of the Big West Tournament if the season ended today despite its struggles against some teams it has historically handled with ease in the past.
CSUN hasn’t beaten Hawaii in its last 18 tries. Its two wins in conference play were to a UC Riverside team it is tied for ninth place with, and winless Cal State Fullerton, in which it needed to go five.
“I think right now we’re just lacking a little bit of discipline,” said junior Caylen Alexander, who had a match-high 28 kills on 70 swings, but hit .257 which is less than her season average.
Hawaii trailed 11-10 in the fifth set when it scored five of the final six points. Adeyemi pounded a kill off the block and out to tie the match at 11 and CSUN was called for interference over the net to put UH in front.
Adeyemi and freshman Miliana Sylvester teamed up for a double block and Sylvester put down a kill to get to one of two Hawaii match points.
Adeyemi finished it off with a kill on her 29th swing. She hit .414 with only one error to give UH just enough offense it needed to complement Alexander on the outside.
“She always takes rips at the ball no matter what the situation is in the game and I think tonight was a great night for her to shine given the circumstances of being in a tight game,” senior setter Kate Lang said. “I’m really proud of her.”
Tali Hakas had 11 kills and 12 digs but also had 11 of UH’s 30 errors. Lang finished with 44 assists and 17 digs and Tayli Ikenaga had a team-high 21 digs and nine assists.
Paige Sentes had a match-high 28 digs and setter Katie Kolar had 48 assists, 11 digs and three aces for CSUN under first-year head coach Aquiles Montoya, whose team dropped to 4-5 in five-set matches.
“Frankly, winning matters to us. There’s not a whole lot of moral victories that I talk about with our team,” Montoya said. “Ultimately, I loved watching them battle. I wished I could be out there with them.”
Hawaii led by as many as eight points in the first set, but CSUN pulled to within a point at 23-22 before Alexander finished it with a kill and a solo block.
Hailey Brockway opened the second set at the service line and served the first five points with two aces before she left the match after taking a Hakas kill off of her face on a block attempt and falling awkwardly to the floor.
With the matched tied at a set apiece, UH had a swing to win the third set but Alexander’s attempt went wide.
CSUN pulled out the third set on an ace that was shanked into the crowd by Alexander, who combined with Hakas to commit 17 hitting errors with two sets left to play.
CSUN tried to play its way back into the fourth set, pulling to 18-17 on its eighth ace of the match.
Alexander responded with two quick kills and Jacyn Bamis recorded a solo block and then capped a long rally with a kill to put UH back up by five and give it some breathing room entering the fifth set.
UH has now played everybody in the conference once and will open the second half of Big West play hosting UC Santa Barbara on Friday and Cal Poly on Saturday.
UH is tied in the standings with the Mustangs, who Hawaii swept on the road earlier this month.
The Gauchos, who swept UH the next night on the road, are one of four teams tied for fourth place.
UCSB and Cal Poly play each other on Tuesday.
BIG WEST WOMEN
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
UC Davis 9 1 .900 — 14 5
Cal Poly 7 3 .700 2 14 7
Hawaii 7 3 .700 2 13 7
Long Beach St. 6 4 .600 3 12 8
UC Irvine 6 4 .600 3 12 9
UC San Diego 6 4 .600 3 12 9
UCSB 6 4 .600 3 10 12
CSU Bakersfield 4 6 .400 5 10 12
CS Northridge 2 8 .200 7 7 14
UC Riverside 2 8 .200 7 7 16
CS Fullerton 0 10 .000 9 4 16
Sunday
Hawaii def. Cal State Northridge 25-22,
17-25, 28-30, 25-19, 15-12
Tuesday
Cal Poly at UC Santa Barbara
Friday
UC Santa Barbara at Hawaii, 7 p.m.
UC Irvine at Cal State Bakersfield
UC Davis at UC San Diego
Cal State Fullerton at Cal State Northridge
UC Riverside at Long Beach State
Saturday
Cal Poly at Hawaii, 7 p.m.
UC Davis at Long Beach State
Cal State Fullerton at Cal State Bakersfield
UC Irvine at Cal State Northridge
HAWAII DEF. CAL STATE
NORTHRIDGE 25-22, 17-25, 28-30,
25-19, 15-12
MATADORS (7-14, 2-8)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Smith 515 2 55 .236 6 4 17.0
Bazylevych 413 4 35 .257 1 0 13.0
Miller 511 4 36 .194 11 3 12.5
Okolo 5 8 4 21 .190 1 3 11.5
Brockway 2 6 2 14 .286 5 1 8.5
Turgeon 5 6 2 16 .250 2 5 9.5
Kolar 5 3 0 7 .429 11 0 6.0
Sentes 5 0 0 0 .000 28 0 0.0
Nippert 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 1.0
Dunlap 5 0 0 0 .000 2 0 0.0
Cederlind 4 0 0 0 .000 7 0 0.0
Rojelio 5 0 0 0 .000 12 0 3.0
MATCH 5 62 18 184 .239 86 16 82.0
RAINBOW WAHINE (13-7, 7-3)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Alexander 52810 70 .257 15 1 31.5
Adeyemi 513 1 29 .414 6 1 13.5
Hakas 51211 43 .023 12 1 16.5
Bamis 510 3 25 .280 1 1 12.5
Sylvester 5 6 4 23 .087 2 3 7.5
Leyva 5 1 0 1 1.000 15 0 2.0
Matias 1 1 0 1 1.000 0 0 1.0
Lang 5 1 1 5 .000 17 1 2.5
Arquette 3 0 0 0 .000 1 0 0.0
Ikenaga 5 0 0 0 .000 21 0 0.0
MATCH 5 72 30 197 .213 90 8 87.0
Key — s: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors;
att: attempts; pct: hitting percentage; d:
digs; ba: block assists; pts: points (kills
plus blocks plus aces).
Service aces — Cal State Northridge 10
(Kolar 3, Rojelio 3, Brockway 2, Nippert,
Turgeon). Hawaii 7 (Hakas 4, Alexander,
Bamis, Leyva). Service errors — Cal State
Northridge 12 (Brockway 2, Cederlind 2,
Dunlap 2, Kolar 2, Miller 2, Rojelio, Turgeon). Hawaii 6 (Alexander 2, Leyva 2,
Bamis, Ikenaga). Assists — Cal State
Northridge 57 (Kolar 48, Sentes 6, Rojelio
2, Smith). Hawaii 65 (Lang 44, Ikenaga 9,
Matias 9, Leyva 2, Hakas). Block solos —
Cal State Northridge 2 (Okolo 2). Hawaii 4
(Alexander 2, Bamis, Lang). Ball handling
errors — Cal State Northridge none. Hawaii none. Reception errors — Cal State
Northridge 7 (Rojelio 2, Smith 2, Cederlind, Sentes, Turgeon). Hawaii 10 (Alexander 3, Hakas 3, Ikenaga 2, Lang, Leyva).
T—3:09. A—5,648. Officials—Dickson
Chun, Randy Rubonal, Matthew Tsutsumi,
Hunter Haliniak
