Caylen Alexander tallied 28 kills to surpass 1,000 for her three-year Hawaii volleyball career as she led the Rainbow Wahine to a four-set win at Cal State Bakersfield on Tuesday night.
The 28-26, 25-15, 18-25, 25-21 victory at the Icardo Center in Bakersfield, Calif., capped a 2-1 road trip for the Wahine, who were tested early and late by the Roadrunners but usually had an answer in the explosive form of Alexander, the reigning Big West Player of the Week who is third in the country in kills.
She supplied 14 digs and three aces while hitting .431 as UH (12-7, 6-3 Big West) hit .317 as a team to .257 for CSUB (9-12, 3-6). Alexander needed 24 kills to join the 1K club entering the day.
It was the only meeting between the teams in the Big West’s unbalanced, 18-game regular season. At the midpoint of the slate, UH sits in fourth place, two back in the loss column from leader UC Davis.
UH was coming off a disappointing sweep loss at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, 24 hours after it played one of its best matches in a sweep of Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo on Friday.
Tuesday’s outing fell somewhere in between.
Middles Jacyn Bamis and Miliana Sylvester combined for 21 kills. Setter Kate Lang had 52 assists and 12 digs while back-row players Tayli Ikenaga and Victoria Leyva also reached double figures in pop-ups.
Alexander put down nine kills in Set 1 as UH rallied to win in extra points. Jacyn Bamis kicked off a 3-0 spurt with a kill to tie it at 26 and Alexander served up an ace to take the frame.
The Roadrunners threatened to send the match to a fifth set but a key 5-0 run by the Wahine brought them from down 19-18 to up 23-19. Sylvester got in on two blocks during the sequence. A CSUB service error got UH to match point and Alexander put it away on UH’s second chance at it.
CSUB is winless against UH in nine all-time meetings.
UH returns home for a three-game stretch at the Stan Sheriff Center beginning with Cal State Northridge (7-12, 2-6) at 5 p.m. Sunday.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.