ESPN Honolulu Rainbow Wahine play-by-play voice Tiff Wells with his six biggest takeaways from the previous week for the Bows
1 – Crazy Final Day In The BWC. After UC Santa Barbara went 17-1 to win the regular season title last year and finishing three matches clear of second place Hawai`i and Cal Poly, 2024 was anything but rinse and repeat. No seed was finalized heading into the Big West’s last day of the regular season and two of the six bids were left as Cal Poly, Hawai`i, UC Davis and Long Beach all had clinched their spot in The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2024 Outrigger Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship. Between UC San Diego, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara, one of those teams would be left out. With Ava McInnes becoming UCSD’s all-time leader in career kills, the Tritons swept visiting Cal State Bakersfield to punch their ticket to Irvine and qualify for the postseason in their first year as a full-fledged Division I member. Then UC Irvine needed to beat Hawai`i and needed UC Riverside to beat UCSB. Both of those occurred as the Anteaters defeated the Rainbow Wahine 3-1 and the same result happened in Riverside as the Highlanders upset the Gauchos. With both UCI and UCSB at 10-8, it came down to the second tiebreaker. As their regular season series was tied, it then went to the team with the best record in conference matches against common opponents beginning at top and working down until the tie is broken (both went 0-2 vs #1 Cal Poly; UCI went 2-0 and UCSB split with #2 UH). UC Irvine, who entered the week in seventh place (two matches behind sixth place UCSD and UCSB), go 2-0 in the final week to clinch the sixth and final spot.
2 – Top 2 Again. Coming into the final day of the regular season, three teams entered BWC play at 13-4: Cal Poly, Hawai`i and UC Davis. With the Mustangs and Aggies playing one another, one of them would finish 14-4 and the other at 13-5. UH knew a win over UC Irvine would move them to 14-4 as well and also earn them a share of the regular season title. As Cal Poly came from behind twice in their match (down 0-1 and 1-2) to win at UC Davis, the Mustangs then waited for the result of the Hawai`i/UC Irvine match to see if they would share the regular season title and be the 2-seed in the conference tournament or win the league outright and be the top seed. It would be the latter as the Anteaters defeated the Bows in Irvine for the first time ever. It’s Cal Poly’s first regular season title since 2018 and for UH, they have now finished first or second in the regular season every year since re-entering the conference ahead of the 2012 season. And like 2023 where UH won the tiebreaker to be the second seed, the same is said here in 2024. Top two equals a bye into Semifinal Friday.
3 – 1st Time For Everything. In this topsy-turvy conference season, Hawai`i has seen a few program firsts occur: UC Davis beat the Bows in Honolulu, UC Riverside defeated UH and UC Irvine won the regular season series against the Rainbow Wahine while also notching a win in Irvine. Hawai`i also needed to come from behind at home to win in five against CSUN, thwarting the Matadors’ drive to win for the first time ever in Honolulu. In La Jolla, UH also won the final three sets to hold off UCSD’s attempt at their first ever victory against the Bows. It took Hawai`i until match 27 for all 13 players to get court-time. Hawai`i Pacific transfer Morghn Monahan entered Set 3 against Cal State Fullerton and while unable to record a kill in her two attempts, it was a surreal moment for the Oregon native making her Division I debut with UH. All three setters got time to run the offense and on a night where Caylen Alexander recorded season lows in kills (7) and attempts (17) over two sets, it was the others (13 kills for Stella Adeyemi, Jacyn Bamis with 11 kills and Tali Hakas going for a career-high 22 digs) answering the call for UH, earning their 52nd win in as many meetings against Cal State Fullerton. Caylen Alexander also finished the season leading the conference in kills (566), kills per set (5.24), points (626) and points per set (5.80). Finishing one match behind regular season champion Cal Poly, Alexander is on a very short list for BWC Player of the Year when the awards come out early next week.
4 – Trouble In The Bren. Winners of their last four matches and eight of their last nine, UH was peaking at the right time ahead of the conference tournament. Not allowing lengthy scoring runs because they were siding out off first-ball contact at a high percentage and finishing off sets enabled the Rainbow Wahine to remain in contention for a first-round bye entering the final week of the regular season. But in this roller coaster ride of a season, those lengthy opponent scoring runs reappeared in the regular season finale. No set on Saturday against the Anteaters was determined by no fewer than six points. A 17-all first set saw UCI score eight of the final 10 points to take the match lead. After UH evened the match at one set a piece (a dominant 25-15 set two win), a 14-all third set featured an 11-4 extended run for the Anteaters to close out the set 25-18 and retake the match lead. With UH trailing in the fourth 14-6, the Bows battled back to get it to within two at 18-16. From there, a 7-1 close for the Anteaters gave them the 25-19 set victory and a 3-1 match win, their second victory over UH in 2024. There were nine ties over the final two sets but UH never held a lead. In fact, the last lead for the Bows came when they won Set 2 25-15. Hawai`i returns to the Bren Events Center in six days time for the semifinal match against either UC Davis or UC Irvine.
5 – Top 5 For Ikenaga. She’s started every match here in 2024, one of four Rainbow Wahine with that distinction (Tali Hakas, Miliana Sylvester and Kate Lang are the other three). The senior libero who hails from Salt Lake, O`ahu has continued to ascend the career digs list at UH. With her 32 digs this past week, including 14 at UC Irvine, she moved past Tara Hittle into fifth-place all-time. Grateful to be a Rainbow Wahine and playing in front of her family and friends while representing her home state, the two-time conference defensive player of the week sits at 1,320 career digs, 64 shy of tying Tita Ahuna for fourth-place. Also over the two matches last week, Ikenaga went 25-for-25 on serve receive. At 454 digs (ranking second in the conference) and a 4.02 digs per set average (third in the conference), Ikenaga is also on a short list for conference Libero of the Year.
6 – Final 6 #InvadeTheBren. Wild Wild Big West. Hawaiian Roller Coast Ride. However you’ve labeled this season, of course the consistent chaos over the conference season would come into play when determining all six seeds and the final two berths in the final day of the regular season. NorCal got the final day started as Cal Poly came back from 1-0 and 2-1 match deficits to beat UC Davis. As that match ended, Hawai`i and UC Irvine were tied at one while UC Riverside led UC Santa Barbara 2-0. As the Anteaters defeated the Bows, the Highlanders upset the Gauchos. Both scenarios enabled UC Irvine to finish conference play at 10-8 with UCSB and win the tiebreaker as they went 2-0 versus UH and the Gauchos split their Hawai`i series. A win and in situation for UC San Diego paved the way for a 3-0 sweep against Cal State Bakersfield. Being the last match of the night, Long Beach defeated CSUN to finish in fourth place. In the conference preseason poll, only one team outside of the Top 6 (UC Davis) finished in the Top 6. Cal Poly picked to win, finished first. Hawai`i picked second, finished in a tie for second. Picked third, Long Beach State finished fourth. Both UC San Diego (fifth) and UC Irvine (sixth) finished where they were picked back in the preseason. Six teams, five matches over three days with the Thanksgiving Holiday in between. Survive and Advance. See you in Irvine come Friday night Bows fans!
Graphics courtesy of the Big West Conference