A week of strong play has the Hawaii women’s volleyball team back in business.
Unlike last month’s trip to the Central Coast of California, in which a sweep of Cal Poly was followed by a sweep loss to UC Santa Barbara a day later, the Rainbow Wahine dispatched both opponents without much drama on their home floor.
UH defeated Cal Poly 25-19, 25-12, 15-25, 25-20 at the Stan Sheriff Center on Saturday night, the team's fourth straight win behind 20 kills from Caylen Alexander and another aggressive outing from setter Kate Lang, who tied her career high of six kills for the second straight night.
In conjunction with a sweep of UCSB on Friday and a second straight stumble by leader UC Davis on the continent, the Wahine (15-7, 9-3 Big West) moved into a first-place tie with the Aggies with six matches to play before the Big West tournament.
“I am happy. I am happy with the two wins we got. Hands down,” coach Robyn Ah Mow told Spectrum Sports’ Jordan Helle after the match.
Cal Poly (14-7, 8-4) fell into a second-place tie with UC Irvine and UC San Diego.
UH committed just six attack errors over the first two sets, over which it hit .343. After the Mustangs responded with an effective third, with two attack errors to UH’s 11, the Wahine closed the deal in the fourth after the set was tied 14-14.
A four-point spurt, with two kills by Stella Adeyemi, put UH back in command and UH finished it with a dump shot from Lang. Adeyemi, hitting from the left, supplied 11 kills on .304 hitting.
UH was outblocked 13-7 but tied a season high with eight aces, with three coming from Lang, who had 42 assists.
When we started the second part of the season, I told them, we just gotta be a little more consistent. We cannot go up-down, up-down. That third set, OK, too many errors. But they came back out in the fourth. I said, hey, they’re fighting over there, brah, you gotta come out and you gotta fight. And they did. A little bit more consistency.
The Wahine have a big road trip coming starting with UC Riverside on Thursday (4 p.m. Hawaii time) and the key match at UC Davis on Saturday (noon).
UH honored its two recent USA Volleyball Hall of Fame inductees, Ah Mow and Heather Bown during the match.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.