The Hawaii women’s volleyball team moved into a first-place tie in the Big West Conference showing the form of a squad starting to peak at the right time.
The Rainbow Wahine blew preseason conference favorite Cal Poly right off the TeraFlex in the first two sets at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday night and then showed poise down the stretch of a 25-19, 25-12, 15-25, 25-20 victory against the Mustangs.
A crowd of 5,044 watched Hawaii (15-7, 9-3) earn its third straight win against Cal Poly (15-8, 8-4) and tie a season high with its fourth consecutive victory.
More importantly, it moved even with UC Davis in the Big West standings, one game ahead of a trio of teams, including the Mustangs.
The Aggies lost to Long Beach State to finish the weekend 0-2, while Hawaii looked impressive in securing the season sweep of Cal Poly and a split against UC Santa Barbara after Friday’s sweep.
“It started with our practice, and then the warmups. They were dialed and focused and the first two sets we came out,” Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow said. “We made like 15 errors in that one set, which is not going to help us, but I’m happy with them coming back and point-for-point, point-for-point not giving up.”
Junior Caylen Alexander put down a match-high 20 kills and got help down the stretch of the fourth set with two big kills from sophomore Stella Adeyemi, who finished with 11 in the match while hitting .304.
Senior setter Kate Lang, who recorded a match-high 42 assists, nine digs and three aces, tied her career high for the second match in a row in kills with six.
She had two kills in the final four points in the final set, including a tip over her shoulder to stop a 3-0 Cal Poly run and put UH ahead 22-19.
Her last came on set point as Hawaii scored four of the final five points to pull out the win.
“That comes down to film. I have seen, just like in years past that when I start getting into zone four, I’m less offensive,” Lang said. “I’m just trying to turn up that part of my game a little bit. I saw that opportunity and I took it. That’s just senior me here — not a freshman anymore.”
Hawaii hit .314 in the first set and .375 in the second set to take a quick 2-0 lead in the match.
Cal Poly avoided a sweep and ended an eight-set losing streak to the Rainbow Wahine as Hawaii hit minus-.053 in the third set with 11 hitting errors.
The Mustangs closed the set on a 9-2 run, with five points coming on UH hitting errors and a sixth on a Hawaii reception error, and then led 13-11 in the fourth set scoring six of their first 12 points off of blocks.
Hawaii outscored Cal Poly 14-7 the rest of the way and closed it out with an Alexander kill, giving her her 12th 20-kill match of the season, a double block by Alexander and Jacyn Bamis, and the Lang dump.
“That’s her dialed in,” Ah Mow said of her setter. “The thing is, we passed and we set middle, middle, middle, and they are dialed in on our middle and she is free to dump. That is what we see on video.”
Hawaii served tough and kept Cal Poly out of rhythm for much of the match. UH tied a season high with eight aces and committed only five service errors.
Bamis was in on four block assists and a solo block to help UH record seven blocks, and Hawaii outdug Cal Poly 51-43 with Tali Hakas and Tayli Ikenaga tying for match-high honors with 13 apiece.
Hakas added six kills and two aces and Bamis had eight kills. Miliana Sylvester chipped in four kills on 10 swings.
“I’m so proud of every single girl on this team,” Lang said. “Coming back from a good win last night, that’s something that in the past we have’t been able to do is come out strong right then and there the next game. Being able to do that shows how much growth this team has had this season and how much more growth we have as well that we will be doing in the weeks to come.”
UH hits the road next week for matches Thursday at UC Riverside and Saturday at UC Davis, which beat Hawaii in four sets earlier this season.
BIG WEST WOMEN
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
Hawaii 9 3 .750 — 15 7
UC Davis 9 3 .750 — 14 7
Cal Poly 8 4 .667 1 15 7
UC Irvine 8 4 .667 1 14 9
UC San Diego 8 4 .667 1 14 9
Long Beach St. 7 5 .583 2 13 9
UCSB 6 6 .500 3 10 14
CSU Bakersfield 5 7 .417 4 11 13
CS Northridge 3 9 .250 6 8 15
UC Riverside 3 9 .250 6 8 17
CS Fullerton 012 .000 9 4 18
Saturday
Hawaii def. Cal Poly 25-19, 25-12, 15-
25, 25-20
Long Beach State def. UC Davis 24-26,
25-19, 25-21, 21-25, 15-13
Cal State Bakersfield def. Cal State
Fullerton 23-25, 25-11, 25-10, 25-15
UC Irvine def. Cal State Northridge 25-
20, 22-25, 25-10, 25-19
UC San Diego def. UC Riverside 25-21,
25-18, 25-21
Tuesday
UC Davis at UC Riverside
Thursday, November 7
Hawaii at UC Riverside, 4 p.m.
Friday
Cal State Bakersfield at Cal Poly
Long Beach State at Cal State Fullerton
UC San Diego at UC Irvine
CS Northridge at UC Santa Barbara
Saturday
Hawaii at UC Davis, noon
Long Beach State at UC Irvine
UC San Diego at Cal State Fullerton
Cal State Bakersfield at UC Santa
Barbara
CS Northridge at Cal Poly
HAWAII DEF. CAL POLY
25-19, 25-12, 15-25, 25-20
MUSTANGS (15-7, 8-4)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Hiatt 410 3 21 .333 1 4 12.0
Leluge 4 8 1 17 .412 3 6 11.0
Pulling 4 8 1 19 .368 3 6 11.0
Stockham 4 7 5 35 .057 7 2 9.0
Bullis 4 3 0 4 .750 8 1 5.5
Thalken 2 2 0 8 .250 0 3 3.5
Markovska 3 2 1 11 .091 6 3 4.5
Beshear 2 1 2 7 -.143 1 0 1.0
Callahan 2 0 0 0 .000 1 0 0.0
Haberfield 2 0 0 0 .000 7 0 0.0
Hurriyet 4 0 0 0 .000 10 0 1.0
Scott 3 0 0 0 .000 1 0 0.0
MATCH 4 41 13 122 .230 48 25 58.5
RAINBOW WAHINE (15-7, 9-3)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Alexander 420 9 49 .224 8 2 22.0
Adeyemi 411 4 23 .304 3 1 11.5
Bamis 4 8 5 29 .103 0 4 11.0
Hakas 4 6 5 17 .059 13 3 9.5
Lang 4 6 1 16 .312 9 0 9.0
Sylvester 4 4 1 10 .300 3 2 5.0
Leyva 4 0 0 0 .000 7 0 1.0
Matias 4 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
Ikenaga 4 0 0 0 .000 13 0 1.0
MATCH 4 55 25 144 .208 56 12 70.0
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 Poly 4 (Bullis 2,
Stockham, Hurriyet). Hawaii 8 (Lang 3,
Hakas 2, Alexander, Leyva, Ikenaga). Service errors — Cal Poly 12 (Stockham 4,
Markovska 2, Pulling, Bulis, Beshear, Callahan, Haberfield, Hurriyet). Hawaii 5 (Lang
2, Alexander, Hakas, Matias). Assists —
Cal Poly 39 (Bullis 26, Callahan 8, Hurriyet
4, Haberfield). Hawaii 51 (Lang 42, Ikenaga 4, Leyva 2, Alexander, Hakas, Matias).
Block solos — Cal Poly 1 (Markovska).
Hawaii 1 (Bamis). Ball handling errors —
Cal Poly none. Hawaii none. Reception
errors — Cal Poly 8 (Stockham 4, Markovska, Beshear, Hurriyet, TEAM). Hawaii
4 (Leyva 2, Adeyemi, Hakas). T—2:10.
A—6415. Officials—Dickson Chun, Michelle Hayes, Hunter Haliniak, Mark
Nakashima
