ESPN Honolulu Rainbow Wahine play-by-play voice Tiff Wells with his six biggest takeaways from the previous week for the Bows
1 – Oh No In the I.E. Hawai`i and UC Riverside first played in 1974, the first season of Rainbow Wahine volleyball. Ever since then, UH had won every single match in the series. That included a 90-minute 3-0 (25-16, 25-18, 25-16) win in Honolulu on October 13th. It extended the Bows’ overall series record to 33-0 all-time and dating back to 2017, Hawai`i won 36 consecutive sets. Both of those streaks changed last Thursday. UH took a 17-13 Set 1 lead on Caylen Alexander’s first kill of the match. Needing four set points and going into extra time, the Highlanders won the frame 29-27 to snap the set losing streak. Tied at 22 in the third, UCR won it 25-23 to take a 2-1 match lead. It couldn’t happen…not this night…could it? As the Bows trailed 21-17 in the fourth, they fought their way back and Jacyn Bamis’ service ace sent the “five settah sistahs” to yet another maximum set match. Up 7-2 and then 10-4 in the fifth, it just didn’t happen for the Bows as they were stunned 15-13…their first loss to the Highlanders. It took away from yet another masterful performance from Caylen Alexander. A career-high 85 attempts (the most for a UH player since Kim Willoughby’s 88 against UCLA in 2001), she recorded 36 kills (her second 30+ kill performance of the season). More impressive was that over the final three sets, Alexander scored 24 kills on 49 swings, with just one hitting error. It also took some shine off the fact that Kate Lang became just the third setter in UH history to record 4,000+ assists and 1,000+ digs (joining Kanoe Kamana`o and Martina Cincerova). With a chance to play for first place outright two days later, UH was fighting just to stay tied atop the standings.
2 – Big Dub In Davis. 2024 has seen a couple of unfortunate notables here in conference play. In the BWC opener against UC Irvine, the Anteaters reversed swept the Bows for their second ever win in the series. It also was UH’s first conference opening loss since 1993. Two weeks later, UC Davis snapped an 18-match losing streak as they defeated the Rainbow Wahine for just their second ever win in the series and their first win in Honolulu. CSUN nearly added themselves to the list as they almost picked up their first win in Honolulu last month. And then of course, the loss at UC Riverside to begin the penultimate regular season road-trip. With a flight to Northern California and a day between matches, how would the Bows respond as they played the Aggies with a shot at a first-place tie with a win. Nip and tuck in the first set, UH trailed and fought off a set point. Scoring the final three points, UH stole the opening set 26-24 for the early match lead. Trailing the whole second set, the Bows got it to within one at 20-19. As the Aggies held on to tie the match, Set 3 became one of the most dominant and well played sets by the Rainbow Wahine up to this point of the season. With a slim 6-4 lead, UH closed the frame on a 19-5 to win it 25-9…over the league leaders. The Bows hit .480 (12-0-15) in the set and sided out at 88% (8-of-9) off first-ball contact. The Aggies also subbed out their setter and opposite in the blowout. Leading 9-5 in the fourth, UH extended the lead to 19-11 before a walk-off double-block from Jacyn Bamis and Caylen Alexander gave UH the 25-18 set win and the 3-1 match win. The regular season series saw both road teams win in four sets.
3 – ¡Muy bien Tali! The six-rotation player has been asked to play out of position. And she’s done so with a smile on her face and joy in her play. Known for the infectious personality and of course the on-court bear hugs, the sophomore arguably played her best match of the season against what was the league leader. Despite a little bit of a slow start offensively, Hakas eventually recorded a career-high 14 kills on an efficient .480 hitting percentage. Chipping in 15 digs, it was her third double-double of the season and of her career. She was one of four players with 10+ digs as UH (the league leader in digs/set) outdug UC Davis 73-54. Her all-around play complimented Alexander’s 21-kill, 10-dig performance as UH earned their second conference road-trip split of the season with one more road-trip left.
4 – Cool Down. If only Kolohe Kai had a post-match concert, maybe this would have been the first song played. An early afternoon match-time start of 2:00 p.m. moved up the start time of the match-day routine for the Bows. But with the coaching staff’s mantra of “it is what it is” in the back of their mind, UH also looked for some retribution after the Aggies beat the Bows on their home court a little less than a month ago. That first meeting, UC Davis out-blocked UH 10-8. They also recorded eight service aces and hit .267 as a team as four attackers had 12 or more kills. The Aggies also held Alexander to 15 kills, still her lowest output of the season. The Bows made a change in their serving and gave UC Davis’ Jade Light the Tommi Stockham (the Cal Poly Outside Hitter) treatment. Serve her nearly every ball. 38 of the 87 serves went her way and while she was aced just once, quite a few of them pulled the Aggies’ setter of the net and kept them out of system. Light did get her kills (15), but she was the only one with 10 or more for the Aggies. UH held one of the top attackers in the BWC (Olivia Utterback) to just nine kills, tying her third lowest output of the season. Each team had just four blocks. The Bows (62-17-157) out-hit the Aggies (48-16-166) .287 to .193 as UH also won the serve-pass game. Hawai`i had six aces to three errors and only gave up 3 Aggies’ aces (after giving up a season-high tying 10 at UC Riverside just two days prior). The big road win definitely…hit the spot.
5 – The Big Littles. On a roster of 13, the two shortest players have helped control both the serve-receive and floor defense as the Bows top the conference in digs per set. On Thursday in Riverside, Victoria Leyva went for a career-high 19 digs, while the 27 digs for Tayli Ikenaga pushed her past Kanoe Kamana`o and Kanani Danielson for 6th all-time at UH (1234). Combined, the two went 36-of-38 on serve receive with nine assists. Two days later up in Davis, double-digit digs for both Leyva (10) and Ikenaga (19) while the combined to receive 30 serves without a reception error. Add in the backup setter/serving sub Jackie Matias (one ace and two digs, just two days after her birthday), everyone else contributed to the dig parade as UH held a sizeable 73-54 advantage in that category.
6 – Sprint To The Finish. With just two weeks left in the regular season, the race to make it to Irvine for The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2024 Outrigger Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship. Two games separate first through seventh place and with just the top six making the postseason, it’s led to a dramatic finish of the regular season. Even crazier is that four, yes four teams are tied for first (Hawai`i, Cal Poly, UC Davis and UC San Diego). UH is 4-1 against them and will host UC San Diego this Saturday for Senior Night. Also keep an eye out on Tuesday’s UCSD-Long Beach State match. LBSU’s starting setter and the 2023 BWC Setter of the Year Zayna Meyer has not played since November 1st and yet, The Beach is 3-0. It’s only fitting that in one of the craziest years the conference has seen, we could be in for an even wilder ride over the last two weeks of the regular season.
