The streak lives.
Hawaii earned its 30th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament with its most dominant outing of the season: a 26-24, 25-15, 25-10 sweep of host Long Beach State in the title match of the Outrigger Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif., on Saturday.
UH (23-8) will learn its seeding and destination in the 64-team NCAA field during the selection show at 1 p.m. Hawaii time on Sunday.
Robyn Ah Mow’s second-seeded Rainbow Wahine built on Friday’s sweep of Cal Poly in the semifinals and only seemed to gain strength as Saturday’s match progressed. They hit .330 for the match to the .123 of fourth-seeded LBSU (21-10), which they defeated on consecutive Saturdays.
All-Big West first-team middle Amber Igiede was named tournament MVP after she put down a match-high 16 kills on 23 swings (.522) and had five block assists and two aces.
After UH lost consecutive home conference matches to Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara for the first time in 30 years in early November, the team could hear the external doubts.
"This year, a lot of people counted us out because we had a couple losses early," Igiede said at the tournament post-match podium. "Coach Rob kept saying, don’t let the outside noise affect (us). … I think that’s what we really did."
Ah Mow said every loss during the 14-4 conference season was a valuable lesson in helping each player hone their weaknesses.
"They came out in this tournament and just played their hearts out. So, good job ladies," Ah Mow said. "Everything was clicking. Blocking and defense and serving and passing. And Long Beach is a great team. And they just came out and did what they needed to do."
Riley Wagoner hit a ball off the Beach block to give the Wahine the opening set on UH’s fourth set-point opportunity. From that point it was a runaway, as UH had four aces and five blocks in Set 2 and hit .667 in Set 3.
Ah Mow, the former Olympic setter, acknowledged that she constantly gets on UH distributor Kate Lang for even the smallest mistakes. But Ah Mow was downright glowing of Lang's performance in the tournament, including 36 assists Saturday.
“For her to come out and play the way she did these last two, I’m very, very proud of you,” she said with Lang at her side. Lang, the Texan in her fourth overall season with the program, was visibly shocked at the public praise but managed a thank you.
Igiede said Lang, an All-BWC second-team setter this season, is special because she'll gamble on sets in the middle, which has the effect of throwing teams off and setting up subsequent 1-on-1 opportunities.
Lang said a key was arriving on Monday and practicing hard in the Pyramid to get used to its vaulted ceiling, which can affect a player's depth perception in serving, passing and hitting.
The Wahine scored the first seven points of Set 3 on Tayli Ikenaga’s serve and never let up. They scored the last five to close it out in anticlimactic fashion.
Wagoner supplied eight kills, middle Kennedi Evans had seven on nine error-free swings, Kendra Ham had seven kills and four blocks and Caylen Alexander had six kills, 10 digs and three solo blocks.
LBSU’s top attacker, Elise Agi, was held to eight kills and seven errors on 26 swings (.038).
Beach coach Tyler Hildebrand said he was happy for Ah Mow's staff, which he knows well, and that he thought UH was clearly playing its best volleyball at the end of the year.
“Man, Hawaii was good tonight,” Hildebrand said. “Amber is a national team player, and she showed it the last two times we played them. They played a great match. The match was a lot closer through the first two sets than it seemed in all areas, except serving and passing.”
The split-allegiance crowd at the Pyramid was tallied at 2,137.
“This is a fantastic crowd,” BWC Commissioner Dan Butterly said during the championship broadcast on ESPN Plus. “I think we’re the last conference volleyball tournament before the NCAA pairings, so couldn’t ask for a better environment tonight.”
UH more than likely needed the automatic berth from the first Big West women’s volleyball tournament event since 1998 to keep its NCAA streak alive. (This BWC tournament was billed as the inaugural edition, but unearthed records showed a league tournament was held in 1996 through 1998. Hawaii was in the Western Athletic Conference at the time.)
UH has made every NCAA Tournament since 1993, not including 2020, when the Big West canceled its women’s volleyball season due to the COVID-19 pandemic threat.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.