HONOLULU — The 2022 Hawaii women’s volleyball team got its signature nonconference victory just in time.

With UH staring at another disappointing result against a marquee opponent, it instead rallied past USC with a reverse sweep on Saturday night, 22-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-16, 15-8 in front of a SimpliFi Arena crowd of 4,925 (6,191 tickets issued).

It was the last chance for the team to attain an out-of-conference result that it can hang its hat on until the postseason. UH lost to Texas A&M in five sets to begin the season, dropped matches in straight sets to ranked foes Pittsburgh and San Diego, and collapsed at inopportune times against UCLA last week and USC on Friday night.

But the Wahine were game for the rematch with the Trojans, cutting down significantly on their attack errors that were their undoing their last two times out. They committed just 17 Saturday compared to 31 by USC. It was a little more than half of their own 32 on Friday.

Junior hitter Riley Wagoner enjoyed a personal 24-hour turnaround with a team-high 17 kills against just three errors among 36 swings, hitting .389, compared to 13 errors and a negative hitting percentage against the same Pac-12 players the night before.

“(It was) the locker room talk for one hour after,” coach Robyn Ah Mow told Spectrum News, referring to Friday night’s lengthy team postgame meeting. “(Wagoner) came up, she took big swings. She played smart when she needed to.”

Middle Amber Igiede was her solid self with 15 kills on .400 hitting, six blocks and eight digs. Freshman Caylen Alexander added three aces, giving her eight for the weekend, to go with eight kills. Her aces all came in a service run in Set 4 as UH jumped out to a 12-4 lead and ran away with the frame.

Junior hitter Kendra Ham had a key eight-point service run in the third set as the Wahine countered a 12-10 deficit with an 18-12 lead. Ham also was on serve for five points during an emphatic stretch in Set 5, as the Wahine turned a 7-7 score into a 12-7 lead that effectively iced it.

Ham had 11 digs and libero Tayli Ikenaga 12.

UH turned around the blocking statistic from the night before, with 10 stuffs to USC’s six.

“I’m just happy they came down (from) 0-2. They fought. … Our teams always fight to the end,” Ah Mow said. “They came back, they could’ve done it earlier, but hey, I’ll take this. I’ll take any win.”

Skylar Fields went off for 25 kills on 51 swings for USC (.392), but UH contained the Trojans’ No. 2 option, Jordan Wilson, holding her to 15 kills with 10 errors.

Now UH (3-5) readies for Big West Conference play. It hosts UC Davis on Sept. 23 in the first of 20 league regular-season matches. But first, the Wahine have their alumnae game and Green & White exhibition on Friday.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.