HONOLULU — Kate Lang hadn’t experienced anything quite like it.
“Never, like ever,” the Hawaii setter said of her 14-point service run during a decisive third set against Cal Poly on Friday night. “I’ve always (used) a standard float serve, so it was really cool. I was like, ‘oh shoot, wow, I’m going back here again.’”
That stretch was one of several dramatic swings in momentum in the Rainbow Wahine’s 16-25, 25-12, 25-16, 25-23 comeback win over the Mustangs in front of a season-high white-out crowd of 6,036 at SimpliFi Arena.
UH’s ninth straight victory was key, both for peace of mind and progress toward a Big West title, against the only team to hand it a conference loss this season.
The Wahine (19-6, 16-1 BWC) simultaneously knocked the Mustangs (16-12, 13-5) out of the title chase and put themselves in position to clinch at least a share of the BWC title at 5:30 p.m. Sunday against lowly Cal State Bakersfield (7-22, 4-13). UC Santa Barbara (14-3 BWC), which had doggedly stuck one game behind UH in the standings for weeks, suffered a costly five-set loss at UC Davis on Thursday to create a two-game buffer for UH with three matches to play.
Middle Amber Igiede set the tone for the team’s .305 hitting performance with 17 kills and five blocks. Freshman Caylen Alexander hit .444 and added 16 kills, including five in a dramatic fourth set that saw the Wahine fall behind by eight points, only for them to rally again with Lang at the service line.
Braelyn Akana added 10 kills from the right side, including the match-winner.
“I told them before the game, if you don’t see me panicking, don’t panic,” coach Robyn Ah Mow said. “I believe in these girls. We pass balls every single day. Just get out of whatever mindset and (to), ‘yes, I can dial in.’ That’s it. (Cal Poly is) not doing anything else that we didn’t scout them to do.”
She added, to underscore her point, that she kept a timeout in her back pocket in the last set, trusting that her team had one more run in it.
Cal Poly’s star hitter, Maia Dvoracek, was held to nine kills and eight errors after she torched UH for 21 kills, 14 digs and four aces in San Luis Obispo.
UH, its four-set loss at Mott Athletics Center on its mind from opening serve, played tight in Set 1 and hit .065 with nine attack errors. The players huddled with Ah Mow in the tunnel to clear their minds going into Set 2, and they turned the match around completely, hitting .571 in the frame.
“That first set … it really wasn’t us at all,” Igiede said. “We were playing tight, we really couldn’t do anything. I think the second set is when we played loose and played like we normally play.”
In Set 3, Lang’s incredible serve run flipped the score from 5-4 Cal Poly to 18-5 UH. She did not record a single ace on 26 serves on the night, but she didn’t need to.
“I knew even if the ball got a perfect pass (by Cal Poly), my front row was always live and totally ahead of the game,” Lang said. “It was nice to know it didn’t have to be an ace. I feel like that was a really big reason I kept going back; I was loose and I knew that people were going to take care of what they needed to take care of.”
It appeared the match would go the distance when Cal Poly jumped out 10-2, then 16-8 in Set 4. The Wahine buckled down one more time. They still stared at a 20-15 deficit when Akana and Tiffany Westerberg stuffed Tommi Stockham, one of 10 UH blocks on the night, to set the stage for another dramatic run, this one 7-0 as the crowd made itself heard.
“If you’re the other team, you can’t help getting mesmerized in the cheering and everything,” Igiede said of the crowd. “We can’t help but get mesmerized, too.”
The teams sided out from there and UH ended the match on its second opportunity.
The team's lone senior, backup setter Mylana Byrd, will be honored after Sunday's match.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.