Rainbow Wahine sweep UC Irvine, shift focus to key road trip

Oct. 8—The Rainbow Wahine will play their next three matches on the road, beginning with two crucial matches against the Gauchos and Mustangs on back-to-back nights next weekend.

With the other top two Big West teams up next on the road, the University of Hawaii women's volleyball team made sure it could play its way into first place in a week with a 25-19, 25-23, 25-20 sweep of UC Irvine on Saturday night.

Amber Igiede finished with a match-high 11 kills to lead Hawaii (12-5, 5-1 ), which remained tied for second in the conference with Cal Poly, one game behind league-leading UC Santa Barbara.

The Rainbow Wahine will play their next three matches on the road, beginning with two crucial matches against the Gauchos and Mustangs on back-to-back nights next weekend.

"I know our team is great and I think we can beat all of the teams with the athleticism that we all have and the closeness that we have, " Igiede said. "Games like this where we technically need to follow our assignments just like from a technical standpoint is where other teams can sneak in through the cracks and we just have to be good on the technical standpoint."

UH has yet to drop a set at home in conference play but was tested a bit by the Anteaters (4-13, 2-4 ), who despite losing in three dragged the match out to nearly two full hours in front of a SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 6, 603.

Junior Paula Guersching logged a match-high nine kills and sophomore Caylen Alexander chipped in eight as Hawaii used its third different starting lineup in as many games.

Senior Kendra Ham, who had 11 digs, seven kills and two aces, started alongside freshman Tali Hakas for the first time this season.

Junior setter Kate Lang had a match-high 30 assists, 11 digs and three kills and Talia Edmonds finished with seven digs and five assists in two sets before Tayli Ikenaga came in as libero in the third set.

With the weekend's business taken care of, Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow was already excited about what lies ahead.

"I'm confident that we have good players that can do the job, very confident, " Ah Mow said. "They just have got to have the confidence in themselves. I'm looking forward to this road trip."

UH separated from the Anteaters in the first set with a 6-0 run at 11-10, with senior Riley Wagoner serving five straight points.

Hawaii led by as many as seven at 19-12 when Ah Mow went to the bench to sub in Jackie Matias and Guersching.

The Anteaters responded with a 4-0 run, prompting Ah Mow to use one of her timeouts. A serving error ended UC Irvine's run but didn't stop the Anteaters from closing to a point at 20-19 on UH's seventh hitting error in the set.

A UCI hitting error allowed Hawaii to get Igiede back into the rotation and UH scored four more points in a row, with an Edmonds ace ending it.

Igiede finished with six kills and hit.667 in the opening set, and Edmonds had two aces, four digs and three assists.

"I want to know that I can put my people in at those times, " Ah Mow said. "Put these guys in from not doing anything and put them in—that was my thought process this week. When we make changes, we need to just keep the ball rolling."

UC Irvine tied the second set at 18-all on an Ella Gardiner kill before UH rattled off six of the next seven points to seemingly have the set in hand.

UC Irvine survive four match points to pull to 24-23 when Igiede finally closed things out with a tip over the double block that landed cleanly to put UH ahead 2-0.

Igiede had five kills in the set and Ham and Guersching each had four as UH hit.306 while cutting down on its hitting errors.

"I'm glad I've found my way playing, " Guersching said. "I think I can do a lot better, honestly, especially swinging."

Hawaii hit just.088 in the third set but finished it on a 9-4 run to win its 12th consecutive set at home.

Guerching and Alexander combined for eight of UH's nine kills in the set as the Rainbow Wahine took advantage of eight service errors and six hitting errors by UC Irvine to close out the match.

"Overall pretty just average the way we played and obviously we know we could play better, " Igiede said. "That's what led to the close scoring of the games."

Junior libero Becca Sakoda, an 'Iolani School alumna, served an ace and added a dig for UC Irvine.