ESPN Honolulu Rainbow Wahine play-by-play voice Tiff Wells with his six biggest takeaways from the previous week for the Bows
1 – The Standard Remains The Standard. On Day 1 of Fall Camp, Head Coach Robyn Ah Mow spoke to the media about how this team would be small, in terms of total players and the height of those players. Preaching patience, she and the team were both excited and ready for the challenge. “Embrace the moment” while knowing there would be ups and downs was the theme for a team that had just two seniors and returned three starters with significant playing time from a season ago. There was the three-match losing streak entering conference play where UH sat at 6-4 overall and also the first season-opening conference home loss since 1993. There were the highs in beating SMU (despite 40 hitting errors), the lows of losing at UC Riverside (first ever loss to UCR) and being swept in the regular season series by UC Irvine, the second defeat to the Anteaters pushed UH to the two-seed in the conference tournament. No seed in the conference tournament was decided until the final day of the regular season. In a topsy turvy Big West season that some dubbed the “Wild Wild Big West”, it was anything but come conference tournament time. All chalk until the championship match, Hawai`i turned aside the notion of it being hard to beat a team three times in a season when it took down top seed Cal Poly for their fifth consecutive BWC championship. It’s the 14th Big West title and 29th overall conference title for the Rainbow Wahine. As the automatic qualifier from the Big West Conference, it’s the 31st consecutive NCAA Appearance for the Bows and the 42nd overall in program history.
2 – JusticeForLiberos. Sometimes a conference will have a Libero of the Year award or a Defensive Player of the Week award. Other than that, there could be a libero or defensive specialist named to an All-Tournament Team…maybe. More often than not, the major award in a tournament goes to the best hitter with the most kills or to the setter on the team that wins the tournament. Rarely (unless the tournament is played in a locale where volleyball is known) is the libero recognized. Well, that all changed over the weekend as Senior Libero Tayli Ikenaga capped a great individual week as she was named the Jersey Mike’s Most Valuable Player of The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2024 Outrigger Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship. Over the nine sets played, Ikenaga recorded: 32 digs, two aces with one error over 38 total serves, 15 assists while going 38-of-41 on serve receive. It was her 6-0 serving run in the fifth set against UC Davis that helped the Bows take the lead at 10-7. Arguably the quietest one on the team, she let her game do the talking on the taraflex to help her squad play into the month of December.
3 – Bows On Three. Of the five major awards handed out by the conference ahead of its postseason tournament, three of them went to the Rainbow Wahine. For a fourth time in the last five seasons, UH received the Player of the Year award as Caylen Alexander took home the honor. Leading the conference in kills, kills per set, points and points, the Junior has taken her game to a whole new level and will get to perform in the postseason yet again. For the second time in her illustrious career, Kate Lang was named Setter of the Year. Topping the conference in assists while sitting in third all-time at UH in assists, Lang has led a relatively young group into the national postseason once again. After three years as either the Libero or Defensive Specialist and not receiving a single postseason award, flowers were finally given from the conference to Ikenaga as she was named the Libero of the Year. In the BWC’s top five in total digs and digs per set, the senior has led a backrow who tops the conference in digs per set while also mentoring freshman Victoria Leyva. All three of them played key roles over the two days in Irvine en route to the tournament title and automatic qualifying bid into the D1 Women’s Volleyball National Championship.
4 – Defense Wins Championships. In a season where the blocking numbers haven’t been at the level seen in recent years, the backbone of this program…the floor defense…has continued to shine. Buoyed by the Conference’s Libero of the Year Tayli Ikenaga, the top team in the conference in digs per set won the dig category in both matches this past week in Irvine. UH had an 86-70 advantage in Friday’s Semifinal against UC Davis, where five Hawai`i players had 10 or more digs. Less than 24 hours in the Saturday Championship versus Cal Poly, the Bows out dug Cal Poly 64-55 and three UH players had double figure dig totals. Yes UH was out-blocked 10-5 on Friday, but the block did get numerous soft blocks to slow down the attacks on their way to holding UC Davis to a .198 hitting percentage. For just the fourth time this season, The Mānoa Roofing Company recorded double-digit blocks as they notched 10 in the final against the Mustangs. And for a second straight night, the UH defense held an opponent under a .200 hitting percentage, this time is was the Mustangs (.185).
5 – Total Team Effort. The toughest game of a tournament is the semifinal. You’ve got to do whatever it takes to make it to the final where you have that 50-50 chance of winning it. But in doing so, you’re also making sure you have something left for that final. Losing the semifinal and well…the season is done and you’re not playing in the final. While everyone knows UH’s offense goes through Caylen Alexander, the whole (or in this case, the #SistahHood) is greater than the sum of the parts. That was on display in Friday’s semifinal where Caylen Alexander had her big offensive night (22 kills), but the hitting percentage was at .164. “The others,” helped to carry the load: Stella Adeyemi was huge in the fifth set en route to her 11 kills; Jacyn Bamis tied her career-high of 15 kills (hitting .448 and recording four blocks); Tali Hakas was huge with 11 kills and 15 digs; Kate Lang scored a massive double-double (50 assists and 17 digs); Tayli Ikenaga had 19 digs. In total, five UH players had 10 or more digs and four had double-digit kills. Fans also saw the total team effort in Saturday’s win. A bounce back effort from Miliana Sylvester on night two where she had 14 kills on 28 swings with just one hitting error, hitting .464 and adding in six blocks. Bamis continued her efficient weekend, chipping in nine kills to hit .571. Second consecutive double-doubles for both Hakas (12 kills, 19 digs) and Lang (42 assists, 10 digs) carried the Bows to the tournament title on a night where Alexander had 14 kills on an .062 hitting percentage. There were also key digs and important serving runs from both Victoria Leyva and Jackie Matias throughout both matches.
6 – 1 of 64. You have to be in it to win it. By winning the Big West’s Automatic Qualifying bid, Selection Sunday for the Bows was drama free. For a 31st consecutive season and 42nd time in program history, Hawai`i was into the NCAA Tournament. Opponent unknown, location unknown. After flying home Sunday morning, UH got back to campus just in time to see the Selection Show. And if you blinked, you would have missed seeing Hawai`i flash across the screen. It was the third of 32 matchups shown, Hawai`i (21-9) facing fifth seed TCU (21-7, Big 12 at-large bid). Placed into the Eugene Subregional…again…Hawai`i heads to the University of Oregon for a second consecutive year and for a third time since 2018. Last year, UH faced another seeded Big 12 team (Iowa State). On the other side is High Point (23-6, Big South auto-bid) and host Oregon (22-7, Big Ten at-large), the fourth seed in the Pittsburgh Quarter. Two of the top five attackers in the nation will be featured here with Caylen Alexander (3rd nationally, 5.15 kills/set) and Melanie Parra (5th in the NCAA, 5.06 kills per set). Parra is also one of the more dynamic servers in the country, averaging nearly half an ace per set, with 55 total aces on the season.