HONOLULU — Scott Wong raised his fists in the air as his alma mater did something it had not for more than a quarter century.
Win at Hawaii.
Pepperdine outlasted the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team in a hard-earned five-setter Friday in front of 4,783 (5,882 tickets issued) at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center for its first win in the building since 1997.
Wong, a Punahou graduate and former UH assistant under Dave Shoji – as well as a former leader of the UH beach volleyball program – is well versed in the proud program history in Manoa.
Even he was taken aback by how long it had been since Pepperdine triumphed in Honolulu.
“I didn’t know that,” Wong said with a chuckle. “It means a ton, though. Hawaii’s always going to be a great program. They’re always going to compete, always going to be tough. Robyn (Ah Mow)’s doing a great job, the way she develops teams and players. It means a lot. It’s a storied program that’s still good. And it means a lot that we beat them tonight.”
The teams rematch at 7 p.m. Saturday, following the format of past two-match sets when the Waves have flown out to the islands.
UH entered the night leading the all-time series 31-4. It had beaten the Waves 13 straight times in Honolulu since that 1997 loss, including in straight sets in the Outrigger Volleyball Challenge last year.
UH (2-1) got off to one of its familiar slow starts. But unlike the first two matches of the year against SMU and San Diego, it proved too much to overcome in Pepperdine’s 25-15, 25-27, 21-25, 25-20, 15-11 victory.
“When Robyn’s coaching she’s doing a nice job of always having a nice response,” Wong said. “Always building up her team. So, there was no surprise that there was going to be a change in effort and change in thought and mindset.”
Ah Mow tried to pump up her team before first serve. But once again, UH was slow out of the gate and it dropped the first set in lopsided fashion for the third time in three matches in 2024.
“I told them (after the loss), we can’t keep doing this. Every time,” Ah Mow said. “We start off one set down, just because, for no reason. We can’t keep doing this stuff the entire season.”
She credited Pepperdine (1-2) for doing what it had to do in making things difficult for top Wahine hitter Caylen Alexander (23 kills, 15 errors), and rued her team’s set selection.
“Pepperdine did their job,” Ah Mow said. “All they have to do is take her (Alexander) out, which gives us a little bit of trouble.” Ah Mow gave Kate Lang’s backup setter Jackie Matias opportunities against the Waves; she wants to see better distribution to the middles and to the right side.
The former Olympic distributor wanted the veteran Lang to feel by fourth set, “who’s hot, who’s hitting, who’s making points. You have to know that as a setter. I mean, I did.”
Tali Hakas had her most productive game so far with 10 kills, but Stella Adeyemi committed as many errors (11) as kills.
On the bright side for the Wahine was a career outing for senior libero Tayli Ikenaga. The Moanalua alumna compiled a personal-best 27 digs.
UH misfired in giving up the last five points of Set 4 after the frame was tied at 20. Then Pepperdine jumped
The Waves found success without their best hitter, Baylor transfer Riley Simpson, who averaged 3.57 kills per set in two losses to a ranked team in USC last week. Grace Chillingworth helped pick up the slack with 20 kills on 42 swings.
Birdie Hendrickson supplied 14 kills and Chloe Pravednikov 13 for the West Coast Conference team.
“We changed our lineup significantly,” Wong said. “This is the first time we ran this lineup, along with Riley being out. Riley’s a really heck of a player. She had a great first weekend for us. And so, we kind of did it by committee. We had a few players step up and they did a great job.”
The only other UH losses to Pepperdine were a two-match set in the islands in 1978 and an interlude to Big West play in Malibu in 2018.
Correction: A previous version of the story had the wrong record for Hawaii.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.