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Hawaii’s two comeback victories on the road led to a pair of Big West awards for the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team on Monday.
Sophomore outside hitter Riley Wagoner was named the conference’s Offensive Player of the Week after leading UH in kills in wins at UC San Diego and UC Irvine, and libero Tayli Ikenaga’s defensive performance earned her the Freshman of the Week award.
Wagoner began the trip by posting a career-high 20 kills in UH’s four-set win at UC San Diego on Friday. Wagoner hit .314 for the match and put away nine kills in 20 errorless attempts in the pivotal third set. She accounted for UH’s last five points in the set as the Wahine rallied from a 24-22 deficit to win the set 27-25 on their way to the victory.
She followed with a match-high 16 kills against UC Irvine on Saturday to help the Wahine rally after dropping the opening set for a second straight match.
Ikenaga, a Moanalua graduate, popped up 22 digs against UC San Diego and had 13 more against UC Irvine and served up an ace in both matches. UH claimed the conference’s freshman honor for the third straight week after setter Kate Lang earned the award the previous two weeks.
The Wahine (9-5, 6-0 Big West) enter the week tied with UC Santa Barbara for first place in the Big West standings and return to SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center to play host to Cal Poly (7-10, 5-1) on Friday and Cal State Bakersfield (10-4, 3-3) on Saturday. Cal Poly began the week alone in second place and faces CS Bakersfield today in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
UH moved up seven spots to No. 71 in the NCAA RPI released on Monday to lead Big West teams in the ranking. UC Santa Barbara also rose to No. 97.
