ESPN Honolulu Rainbow Wahine play-by-play voice Tiff Wells with his six biggest takeaways from the previous week for the Bows
1 – Bamis Goes Off. On a night where Caylen Alexander was slowed down a bit by UC Davis (season low 15 kills), Junior Middle Blocker Jacyn Bamis arguably had her best offensive match of the season and of her career. She tied her season and career high of kills (11), while not committing an error in 17 swings. Hitting a season-high .647 for the match, she added in 3 blocks. Two days later against UC Riverside, Bamis scored 9 kills on 18 swings and registered five more blocks to her ledger. Over her last four matches, Bamis has combined for 33 kills on 59 swings with just five hitting errors to go along with 15 blocks. Known at Clemson as “just a middle,” she hadn’t served a ball until she came to Hawai`i. It can be adventurous at times when a middle goes back to the service line, but Bamis has continued to work on that craft. This was evident on Sunday when she served three consecutive aces.
2 – Series Streaks…Continue And End. Two weeks after UC Irvine recorded their second ever win against UH (both in Honolulu), it was UC Davis’ turn to snap a couple streaks of their own. Their four-set win over UH was their first ever win in Honolulu, while being just the second ever win in program history against UH. It also snapped an 18-match losing streak in the series as they hadn’t beaten UH since 2013. With a day in between matches and some time to think about the next match, the Rainbow Wahine made sure another team (UC Riverside) wouldn’t earn their first win against them in program history. UH never trailed the match and there were only two ties (1-1 in both Set 2 and Set 3). The 90-minute win over the Highlanders extended UH’s all-time record against UC Riverside to 33-0 and since being down 0-2 in the September 2017 match in Riverside, the Bows have rattled off 36 consecutive set victories.
3 – Ikenaga Closes In. An Outside Hitter at Moanalua High School, Tayli Ikenaga made the move to Libero when she enrolled at UH. She’s been the libero for most of her collegiate career and has really taken control of the backrow in this, her senior season. Leading the serve receive and the backrow, she’s become more vocal while being an example to her fellow little, freshman Victoria Leyva. Recently the newest member of the 1,000 career dig club, Ikenaga added 38 digs in the seven sets played last weekend to inch her way even closer into the Top 10 career digs list at UH. Sitting at 1129 this week, she is 10 away from entering the Top 10. With the names on this list that include: Willoughby, Ahuna, Danielson, Kamana`o, T. Williams, it’s quite the impressive individual feat for Ikenaga who is quick to deflect the praise and pass it to her teammates and is just happy and blessed to be playing for her hometown team.
4 – Another Milestone For Lang. September 23, 2021. October 13, 2024. Some may feel they are just two random dates, but for Kate Lang, they are two memorable match days in her career. While splitting time with Mylana Byrd at setter in 2021, Lang made her first career collegiate start at UC Riverside on September 23, 2021. Three seasons later, it was Lang’s 100th consecutive start…also against UC Riverside. Currently fifth all-time at UH in assists (3903), there is a chance for her to pass both Cheri Boyer (4304) and her current Head Coach, Robyn Ah Mow (4313) before her career is over. Her career 10.27 assists per set mark has her at seventh all-time.
5 – One Day And Clear. Last Friday was a frustrating match for UH. In what continues to be an up-and-down season, the Bows won a close opening set (25-22) to take the 1-0 match lead. Caylen Alexander only had two kills in the first set. Leading 15-13 in Set 2, UH saw the lead evaporate as the Aggies tied the match at 1, winning the set 25-21. A Set 3 22-20 lead wasn’t enough as UC Davis served for the Set at 24-23. Two set points for the Bows (25-24 and 26-25) and they couldn’t close as the Aggies scored the final three points to take the set 28-26 and took all that momentum into the fourth. A 10-all set became a 15-7 extended run and a 25-17 victory as UC Davis earned their first ever win in Honolulu. A disappointing result for UH that saw them drop their second conference match of the season and out of the first-place logjam, the Bows took a football term to heart and used it for Sunday. “One snap and clear.” What was done on Friday was that. You can’t change the result; you just have to learn from it and move forward. Sunday was a new day and a bounce-back type of match for UH. In a match that they never trailed in any of the three sets, UH played the minimum required en route to the 3-0 win. Alexander got back to her efficient way (19 kills on 37 swings, hitting .78) while UH as a team, hit .369, their second highest hitting percentage of the season. UH also outdug the Highlanders 54-33 and held the leading digger in the conference (UCR’s Jessica Dean) to just four for the match.
6 – RPI. When the first RPI came out last Monday, UH sat at 42. Typically that’s right around the cutoff for at-large teams, plus or minus a couple of spots. What was good for the Big West Conference is that three other teams: Long Beach State (45), Cal Poly (55) and UC Davis (61) were all in the top 61. With the new RPI out earlier today, Long Beach State (43) is now the highest rated BWC team. UC Davis (56), Cal Poly (60) and Hawai`i (67) now sit in the top 67. While UH has been buoyed by its non-conference opponents (Texas-7, SMU-9, Baylor-19), at the end of the day UH just needs to continue to win as many matches as they can and qualify for the Big West Championship. In a wide open Big West Conference, no one really has the resume to merit at-large consideration. It should for the most part be a one-bid league. The focus is to qualify for the conference tournament and then do whatever is needed to win that in order qualify for the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship.