Rainbow Wahine volleyball team beats Cal State Northridge in four
Hawaii freshman Martyna Leoniak put down a career-high 15 kills and served up five aces to lead the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team to a four-set win over Cal State Northridge today at the Matadome in Northridge, Calif.
Leoniak made her fifth start of the season and hit .469 with no errors in 32 attempts and also contributed 10 digs and four blocks to help UH rebound from a loss at UC Santa Barbara on Friday. Her final ace of the night closed out UH’s 25-15, 22-25, 25-15, 25-21 win over the Matadors and the Wahine (12-6, 9-1 Big West) closed the first half of the Big West season tied with UCSB for first place in the conference standings.
UH middle blocker Skyler Williams added 10 kills in 18 attempts to hit .333 and was in on five of UH’s 13 total blocks. Freshman setter Kate Lang finished with 43 assists and tied Tayli Ikenaga for team-high honors with 14 digs.
UH hit .304 as a team with 13 errors after committing 21 errors in Friday’s loss at UCSB. Senior Brooke Van Sickle had five kills in 19 swings and was on the bench for the final two sets. She had played in all 60 sets this season and led UH with 3.93 kills per set entering the match. Freshman Mia Johnson moved into the lineup in her first playing time since Sept. 11 and posted four kills in 10 attempts.
Nicole Nevarez led CSUN (4-16, 3-7) with 13 kills, Taylor Orshoff finished with 10 and the Matadors hit a collective .169.
UH led throughout the first set starting with an ace by Lang and pulled away late with a 6-0 run capped by back-to-back aces by Leoniak that gave UH a 23-13 lead.
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CSUN hit .364 in the second set to UH’s .244 and closed with a 5-2 burst to tie the match. UH coach Robyn Ah Mow altered the lineup for the third set and the Wahine raced out to an 8-2 lead and went up 21-8 after Williams was in on back-to-back blocks.
There were 11 ties and four lead changes in the fourth set and UH led 22-21 when a CSUN hitting error and a double-contact call gave UH match point. Leoniak’s serve was sent into the crowd to end the match.
UH returns home to face UC Davis on Friday and UC Riverside with fans allowed into SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center for the first time this season.
