IRVINE, Calif. >> When the PA announcer inside Bren Events Center read Tayli Ikenaga’s name as the most valuable player of the Outrigger Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship, she looked as surprised as anyone.

Generally the top awards are reserved for the dominant outside hitters, but anyone watching this Rainbow Wahine team — and specifically these two wins to claim a fifth consecutive conference title this weekend — shouldn’t be surprised by the honor.

Hawaii’s smallest player at 5 feet 5 is also one of the quietest, but her play has elicited the largest roars from the crowd all season.

Nothing was different this weekend, as Ikenaga’s 32 combined digs, some of which were worthy of SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays, and relentless pursuit of the volleyball were the clear spark Hawaii needed every time it got down.

“I’m just so proud of this team just knowing that we all put in so much work,” Ikenaga said. “We all had the same goal and I think we executed it really, really well.”

When Robyn Ah Mow describes the culture of Hawaii volleyball, it begins with defense and toughness.

It’s why when a tip shot falls to the floor on her team’s side of the net or two players end up staring at each other when a ball hits the floor, it elicits some of the most demonstrative responses from Hawaii’s head coach.

Errors happen, blocks are missed, assignments are forgotten, they all can upset Ah Mow. When the defense starts to lag, that’s when things really get tense.

“It’s just about playing defense and having grit and just have hard grit of going after every ball,” Ah Mow said. “Sure, we have a lot of short hitters, but just keep working. That’s been Hawaii volleyball ever since I was a kid and watching. Just trying to continue that.”

Defense isn’t reserved for just her liberos, either. Any pin hitter wanting to play in this program is going to have to learn how to play defense.

That also applies to the setter. Senior Kate Lang has 50 double-doubles in her career, including 15 this season.

In the two tournament wins, Lang had 92 assists and 27 digs. She guided the team to a .295 clip in Saturday’s win over Cal Poly while also helping UH to outdig its two opponents by 25. If Ikenaga wasn’t named MVP, it likely would have gone to UH’s other senior playing to keep her career going.

“She was just distributing. She played an awesome game trying to distribute the offense,” Ah Mow said.

Lang and Ikenaga will finish their careers in the NCAA Tournament and will leave the program with the achievement of winning a Big West championship every season they wore a UH uniform.

Lang, the team’s floor captain, spent five years in the program, beginning with the COVID-19 year in 2020 that wiped out the season.

She’s had to develop brand new chemistry with multiple players on the court in her last season, but said throughout the entire process that it has been a privilege.

“I’ve been able to work with girls where there is a big age difference between us and they work so hard and they are such a different perspective that I have been able to apply to my game because of playing with players like Mili (Sylvester),” Lang said. “I’m just so excited because we really deserved this. We’ve put in all the work. Our practices are like no other, so we have to show that out on the court and we did that tonight.”