Rainbow Wahine storm back to beat Iowa State
LAS VEGAS — Trailing Iowa State in the fifth set on Saturday night, the Hawaii women’s volleyball team needed to pull off something neither team had done in the entire match.
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LAS VEGAS — Trailing Iowa State in the fifth set on Saturday night, the Hawaii women’s volleyball team needed to pull off something neither team had done in the entire match.
There hadn’t been one lead change until the Rainbow Wahine, fueled by a pro-Hawaii crowd at Orleans Arena, stormed from behind and downed the Cyclones of the Big 12 Conference 25-20, 15-25, 25-11, 19-25, 15-11 to remain undefeated in the Lucky Aces Women’s Volleyball Invitational.
The first four sets were all won by the team that scored first and never gave up the lead.
Hawaii (8-2) trailed 3-1 to Iowa State in the fifth set when it rattled off five of the next six points and never lost the lead to extend its winning streak to seven.
“Heart,” was the one-word answer junior libero Victoria Leyva said when asked about the difference in the match. “We knew we wanted to own this game, and in the fifth set, there was no question it was out there and that it was ours to take. We wanted it and we went out there and played with heart and got the result we wanted.”
This Hawaii team treats every match the same, but there was no denying playing a power conference opponent meant just a little more.
There is still a full conference season ahead, but a victory over Iowa State after playing a Top 20 Baylor team to five sets was a win this group really wanted making the journey out to Las Vegas.
“It was a big deal for us,” said senior outside hitter Panna Ratkai, who had a team-high 18 kills. “It’s a Big 12 team. Everybody wants to beat them. I think we knew that we were kind of the underdogs and it was easier for us to play more free and we showed up and played our best and we beat them. It’s a big, big, big thing for us.”
By the end of the match, the numbers on both sides were fairly similar. Iowa State enjoyed a 12-6 advantage in blocks, but the Rainbow Wahine got three of theirs in the deciding fifth set.
After Iowa State tied it for the final time at 7-7, UH prompted the Cyclones to call timeout after a double block by Rachel Purser and Ratkai gave Hawaii a 10-7 lead.
During the timeout, a “Rain-bows” chant from opposite sides of the court rang out as Hawaii closed in on the victory.
A block from Maeli Cormier and Purser was followed by a Ratkai ace for a 13-9 lead.
Purser added a kill for match point and the Cyclones (5-5) hit out to end it.
“I think we got in the right rotation,” Hawaii coach Joshua Walker said of the fifth set. “They wanted our one versus their one and we shifted it so we didn’t start in one. That’s why we started in four and I was hesitant to start there and that’s why we got off to a slow start. A team like Iowa State plays a lot different from when they are ahead to when they are behind.”
Hawaii’s defense again was key, holding the Cyclones to a .158 hitting percentage, which is well under their season average.
Iowa State hit .000 in the fifth set, with eight kills and eight errors.
Tali Hakas had 14 kills and eight digs and setter Adrianna Arquette finished with her fourth double-double of the season with 40 assists and 12 digs.
Leyva had a match-high 19 digs.
“The systems that we have set in place under Coach really make it easy to dig a ball,” Leyva said. “There are a lot of clearer lines. You’re able to see the ball and get the ball and it makes it easy.”
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After hitting 12 service errors in Friday’s sweep of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, UH had seven with 10 aces against Iowa State.
Nayeli Gonzalez had a match-high 19 kills and Nayeli Ti’a added 15 for Iowa State, but both outside hitters ended the match hitting less than .200.
Hawaii got six kills apiece from Hakas and Ratkai in the first set to extend its set winning streak to 12.
Hakas also went on a six-point scoring run at the service line to give Hawaii a 22-15 advantage in which the Cyclones used both of their timeouts.
Hakas got the Hawaii crowd energized again early in the second set with a kick save on a ball blocked down that ended with Miliana Sylvester and Cormier recording a double block on Gonzalez.
Hawaii started to struggle passing the ball and the Cyclones took full advantage, scoring seven of the last 10 points to run away with the set win.
UH was held to 10 kills, and three of its five hitting errors came on Iowa State blocks.
The tide swung back in Hawaii’s favor in the third set as the Cyclones rolled up five hitting errors before the media timeout.
Hawaii led 16-7 after Arquette hit the back corner for UH’s seventh and freshman Cameron Holcomb closed out the set serving the final three points in UH’s favor.
The roller-coaster theme of the match continued in the fourth set as Iowa State took a 15-9 lead into the media timeout helped out by seven Hawaii hitting errors.
Ava Martin followed with an ace for the Cyclones and Walker didn’t hesitate calling his own timeout right away.
UH managed to close the gap on an Arquette ace to make it 21-19, but Iowa State effectively used a timeout to help force a service error and then closed out the set.
“They tested us,” Walker said. “We had to make some adjustments blocking and we had to be patient. We want to put ourselves in position to get more blocks, but we started giving up too many tips. I’d much rather get beat by people swinging hard than people tipping on us. We made the adjustment and then we were able to execute a lot better at the net when people felt like they needed to swing harder.”
UCLA 3, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 0
Brooke Harwood had eight kills and three blocks and the Bruins had no problems rolling past the Islanders, 25-15, 25-16, 25-15.
Mija Bendziute led UCLA (8-2) with nine kills. Seven different UCLA players had at least one ace and the Bruins finished with 10 blocks.
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Kenna Buchanan led Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (2-7) with eight kills.