Kate Lang and Tayli Ikenaga couldn’t keep the tears out of their eyes before and after Saturday night’s regular-season home finale.
Everything in between, however, was anything but sad.
The four-time defending Big West champion Rainbow Wahine volleyball team closed out its final homestand in emphatic fashion, sweeping UC San Diego 25-16, 25-13, 25-19 at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
A season-high crowd of 7,109, most of whom stuck around to honor the two seniors after the match, were treated to a second straight sweep by Hawaii (18-8, 12-4), which has won nine of 10 sets since losing at UC Riverside for the first time in school history.
Caylen Alexander had a match-high 14 kills, Stella Adeyemi added 12 and it was another team effort for UH, which kept pace with Cal Poly with two matches left in the regular season.
“I keep talking to them about trust. Not because they don’t like each other, it’s just the trust in the setter, trust the hitters, trust in the defense behind the block,” Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow said. “I think all of that is the whole team coming together. Once we start having that and more and more of that, then we will keep going.”
Hawaii earned a season sweep of the Tritons (16-11, 10-6), needing 1 hour, 41 minutes to get the job done and begin senior night festivities.
Lang, who finished the match with 36 assists and nine digs, passed her head coach for third place on the school’s career assists list after hearing her name introduced in the starting lineup at home for the final time.
She also had three kills in as many attempts and directed a UH offense that hit .340 for the match, including a .586 clip in the second set.
“We are a lot more than one player. We are a lot more than two players,” Lang said. “We’ve got depth on our bench, we’ve got depth on the court and I mean this team can go a long way if we put our minds to it.”
Ikenaga, a Moanalua alumna who played outside hitter in high school, finished with a match-high 17 digs, tying her season high for a three-set match.
“It was so much fun. I think just being out there with the girls and soaking in all of the energy that the fans gave us was just a surreal moment,” Ikenaga said. “I can’t believe it’s over. I want to keep playing, but I’m glad we got it done in three sets.”
Hawaii outdug the Tritons 51-37 and made a season-high 13 blocks.
Tali Hakas, who was in on six of those blocks tying a career high, added nine kills and 10 digs and had two of UH’s five aces.
“I think every facet of the game, from setting to blocking and hitting and defense, just hitting at the right spot at the right time,” Ah Mow said. “Extra, extra proud of them for senior night, with all of the distractions they’ve had to just come out that way.”
Hawaii rolled to a nine-point win in the first set, with Lang setting 13 assists to pass her head coach for third on the school’s career list behind Kanoe Kamana’o and Martina Cincerova.
A 7-2 run by Hawaii included the Tritons using both of their timeouts on consecutive points.
A service error prompted UCSD to use its first timeout and then first-year coach Melanie Greene used her second one after a serve receive error resulted in an ace for Alexander.
Lang fittingly closed out the set behind the service line with Jacyn Bamis and Hakas teaming up on a double block to end the set on a three-point run.
Lang continued the momentum into the second set serving the first two UH points, which both came on blocks to give Hawaii five up to that point.
Adeyemi added five more kills on seven swings in the set and UH nearly doubled up the Tritons on points to go up 2-0.
Hawaii hit .140 in the final set but used six blocks to hold the Tritons to a .049 hitting percentage to finish the sweep.
UCSD hit .109 for the match.
“The tears flowed when I got to the coaches, but other than that, I’m celebrating,” Lang said. “Tonight was a lot of pressure. I think at the beginning of the game I was putting a little bit of pressure on myself and towards the end I also did the same thing, but in between I just thank my teammates so much for having my back and helping me stand up straight sometimes when I don’t feel like I can. Tonight was another testament to how much this team means to me.”
UH closes the regular season on the road at Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine next weekend before the Big West Conference Championships Nov. 27-30.
Hawaii clinched a berth in the six-team tournament earlier on Saturday when UC Irvine lost. A UC Davis win over Cal State Bakersfield today would put three teams tied for first heading into the final weekend. The top two teams receive byes into the semifinals.
UC Davis and Cal Poly play each other in their final regular-season match.
BIG WEST WOMEN
Conference Overall
W L Pct. GB W L
Cal Poly 12 4 .750 — 19 8
Hawaii 12 4 .750 — 18 8
UC Davis 11 4 .733 ½ 16 8
UC San Diego 10 6 .625 2 16 11
Long Beach St. 10 6 .625 2 16 10
UCSB 10 6 .625 2 14 14
UC Irvine 8 8 .500 4 14 13
CSU Bakersfield 6 9 .400 5½ 12 15
CS Northridge 4 12 .250 8 9 18
UC Riverside 4 12 .250 8 9 20
CS Fullerton 0 16 .000 12 4 22
Saturday
Hawaii def. UC San Diego 25-16, 25-13,
25-19
CS Northridge def. UC Riverside 25-22,
20-25, 28-30, 25-15, 15-8
Cal Poly def. UC Irvine 25-17, 25-12,
25-13
UC Santa Barbara at Cal State Fullerton
22-25, 25-17, 25-13, 25-14
Today
Cal State Bakersfield at UC Davis
Thursday
Cal Poly at UC Riverside
Cal State Fullerton at UC Irvine
UC Santa Barbara at UC Davis
Friday
Hawaii at Cal State Fullerton, 4 p.m.
CS Northridge at UC San Diego
Cal State Bakersfield at Long Beach State
Saturday
Hawaii at UC Irvine, 2 p.m.
Cal Poly at UC Davis
UC Santa Barbara at UC Riverside
Cal State Bakersfield at UC San Diego
CS Northridge at Long Beach State
End regular season
HAWAII DEF. UC SAN DIEGO
25-16, 25-13, 25-19
TRITONS (16-11, 10-6)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
McInnes 310 2 28 .286 1 1 11.5
Pries 3 7 2 25 .200 5 2 9.0
McDaniel 3 7 6 17 .059 3 3 8.5
McCluskey 3 5 6 23 -.043 4 2 6.0
Karacaova 1 2 3 11 -.091 5 0 3.0
Baillie 3 0 0 0 .000 6 0 0.0
Hollis 3 0 0 1 .000 6 1 0.5
Uhlick 1 0 0 0 .000 0 0 0.0
Canko 3 0 0 0 .000 5 0 2.0 Johnson 3 0 0 5 .000 2 3 1.5
MATCH 3 31 19 110 .109 37 12 42.0
RAINBOW WAHINE (18-8, 12-4)
S K E ATT PCT D BA PTS
Alexander 314 5 32 .281 5 3 18.5 Adeyemi 312 2 25 .400 3 2 13.0
Hakas 3 9 2 22 .318 10 5 14.5
Bamis 3 6 2 19 .211 1 6 9.0
Lang 3 3 0 3 1.000 9 0 3.0
Sylvester 3 3 0 5 .600 3 4 5.0
Leyva 3 0 0 0 .000 1 0 1.0
Matias 3 0 0 0 .000 2 0 1.0
Ikenaga 3 0 0 0 .000 17 0 0.0
MATCH 3 47 11 106 .340 51 20 65.0
Service aces — UC San Diego 3 (Canko
2, Pries). Hawaii 5 (Hakas 2, Alexander ,
Leyva , Matias). Service errors — UC San
Diego 3 (McCluskey 2, Hollis). Hawaii 3
(Lang 2, Ikenaga). Assists — UC San Diego 30 (Hollis 26, Canko 2, Baillie, McCluskey). Hawaii 46 (Lang 36, Ikenaga 4,
Alexander 2, Hakas 2, Adeyemi, Matias).
Block solos — UC San Diego 2 (Karacaova, McInnes). Hawaii 3 (Alexander 2,
Hakas). Ball handling errors — UC San
Diego none. Hawaii none. Reception errors — UC San Diego 5 (Canko 2, McInnes
2, Pries). Hawaii 3 (Adeyemi 2, Leyva).
T—1:41. A—7,109 Officials—Wayne Lee,
Kevin Chun, Kerwin Stenstrom.
