Amber Igiede's hitting, blocking help Rainbow Wahine sweep past UC Irvine

Nov. 13—A day after a relatively smooth ride against UC San Diego, Hawaii endured a few more dips in Saturday's match at UC Irvine.

The road was a bit bumpier, but the destination was the same.

A day after a relatively smooth ride against UC San Diego, Hawaii endured a few more dips in Saturday's match at UC Irvine. In the end, the Rainbow Wahine found their way to another Big West sweep in a 25-23, 25-13, 25-20 victory at the Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif.

UH spread the attack, with middle blocker Amber Igiede putting away a match-high 14 kills and outside hitter Riley Wagoner adding 13 in UH's eighth straight win and fourth sweep in a row.

The Rainbow Wahine and Anteaters combined for 17 hitting errors in the first set, with UCI committing its ninth on set point. UH hit.440 in a second-set rout and ended the match on a 7-2 run in the third set.

"It was a little up and down, " UH coach Robyn Ah Mow said in a phone interview. "But they grind it out and they dialed back in and they focused.

"At some points it didn't look like volleyball, but you just have to stay calm. Nobody's going to be perfect, but then can you get out of it ? And they got out of it."

UH ended the match with a.222 hitting percentage, while UC Irvine finished at.090 with 22 errors.

Igiede had a hand in all six of UH's blocks and libero Tayli Ikenaga led the back row with 16 digs, with defensive specialist Talia Edmonds adding nine. Kate Lang, the reigning Big West Setter of the Week, finished with 34 assists—giving Wagoner 39 attempts and Igiede 33—and eight digs.

Wagoner hit.328 with 27 kills on the road trip. Her final kill on Saturday came on match point after her attack was initially ruled to have hit the antenna for a UC Irvine point. Ah Mow issued a challenge and the call was overturned, with the officials ruling the ball went into the antenna off the UC Irvine block to end the match.

"I just asked Riley, and she said, 'Coach, I know I didn't hit the antenna, ' " Ah Mow said. "We had one challenge (left ) and if it works, it works."

UH (17-6, 15-1 BWC ) remained atop the conference standings entering its final homestand of the regular season. The Rainbow Wahine play host to Cal Poly (15-11, 12-4 ) on Friday and face CSU Bakersfield (7-21, 4-12 ) two days later, when setter Mylana Byrd will be honored in the senior night ceremony.

The Wahine enter the week with a one-game lead on UC Santa Barbara with four matches to play. UCSB (18-8, 14-2 ) kept pace with UH with a four-set home win over Long Beach State on Saturday.

UC Irvine middle blocker Onye Ofoegbu led the Anteaters (16-10, 9-7 ) with 11 kills and outside hitter Joy Umeh added nine. Both of UCI's leading attackers finished with six errors.

UH hit a season-high.471 in a sweep of UC Irvine on Oct. 7 in Manoa and.363 in Friday's win at UC San Diego. The Wahine ran out to a 12-5 lead in the first set Saturday, but UC Irvine answered with a 7-1 run and crept ahead at 22-21 and 23-22 on kills by Ofoegbu.

UH tied it on a UCI ball-handling error, and a Wagoner kill gave UH set point. The Wahine then took the set on UCI's ninth error.

"I think we got a little bit jittery, " Igiede said. "We worked really hard in practice on converting digs into points, so that's what we had to focus on."

Igiede accounted for the first three points of the second set with two kills and a block and UH broke out to a 20-9 lead to cruise to a 2-0 lead in the match.

UC Irvine took a 12-9 lead in the third set and the teams played to an 18-18 tie. After a UC Irvine service error gave UH the lead, Igiede and Wagoner had three kills in the closing run.

"It was 20-18 and we just really wanted to push our last five (points ) and we're really learning how to finish, " Igiede said.