Rainbow Wahine overcome Ikenaga injury to beat UC San Diego in 4
Oct. 9—Forced into scramble mode before the opening serve, Hawaii clawed past UC San Diego in four drama-packed sets in tonight's Big West women's volleyball match at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
Forced into scramble mode before the opening serve, Hawaii clawed past UC San Diego in four drama-packed sets in tonight's Big West women's volleyball match at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
The Rainbow Wahine took a loss prior to the match when libero Tayli Ikenaga went to the floor as UH finished its warm-ups and had to be helped off the court as the teams lined up for the national anthem.
Junior Talia Edmonds, normally a starter as a defensive specialist, hustled to change into the black libero jersey in place of Ikenaga, who had started all 43 matches and 154 sets in her UH career.
The new-look lineup fought off three set points in the first set and three more in the second, dropped the third set, then closed the fourth with a 7-1 run to cap a 27-25, 30-28, 23-25, 25-19 win before a crowd of 4, 525.
UH outside hitter Riley Wagoner put away a career-high 25 kills, freshman Caylen Alexander added 16 kills and a season-high 14 digs and middle blocker Amber Igiede finished with 15 kills while hitting.393. Edmonds anchored the UH defense with 28 digs and closed the match with a walk-off ace, UH's seventh of the night and fifth of the set.
A night after hitting a sparkling.471 in a sweep of UC Irvine, UH (9-5, 6-0 Big West ) overcame 31 attack errors, 12 on UCSD blocks, to remain the lone undefeated team in conference play.
Ava McInnes led UC San Diego (8-10, 1-5 ) with 22 kills, seven coming in the third set.—PHOTOS :
Along with leading the Wahine with 161 digs (3.43 per set ), Ikenaga is also a key part of UH's passing rotation, and some shaky serve receptions contributed to an.083 hitting percentage in the first set. The Tritons built an 18-14 lead before Wagoner sparked a 4-0 run and tied the set with an ace. There would be three more ties before UCSD took a 24-22 lead on a block by Emily McDaniel and McInnes.
Wagoner kept UH alive by ending a rally with a kill out of the back row and the Wahine forced deuce on a block by Annika de Goede and Westerberg. UH fought off a third set point before Wagoner found the back corner for her sixth kill of the set. De Goede and Igiede then combined on a block of McInnes to give the Wahine the set.
The drama ramped up even higher in a second set that included 17 ties and seven lead changes. The Wahine again faced three set points and erased two on Alexander kills with the other on a Westerberg kill off an overpass sandwiched between them.
UCSD survived a set point when Alexander's serve stuck in the cord, but she then came up with a dig the Wahine converted into a Wagoner kill. Lang then connected with Igiede in the middle to end UH's longest set of the season.
UH opened an 18-14 lead in the third set, but UCSD responded with a 10-3 surge highlighted by five kills from McInnes. UH again survived two set points, but this time the Tritons finished off the set with a kill by Zaria Henderson.
The Tritons broke out to a 5-1 lead in the fourth set, but UH maintained contact and caught the Tritons at 14-14. A UCSD service error gave UH a 19-18 lead and Alexander followed with an ace, Wagoner put away her final two kills and Igiede hammered two more in the middle to give UH match point. Edmonds then ended the night with her walk-off ace.
