Caylen Alexander needed only 36 swings to put down a match-high 19 kills and Hawaii hit.364 in a 25-14, 25-21, 25-17 sweep of the Gauchos on Friday night before a SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4, 315.
Junior middle blocker Jacyn Bamis added 11 kills while hitting.412 and freshman Miliana Sylvester had seven kills without an error and hit .538 for Hawaii (14-7, 8-3 Big West), which was swept on the road at UC Santa Barbara just three weeks ago.
“Definitely pleased. Everybody was working, the team was working, and we are going to stick with this mindset for the second half of the (conference) season,” Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow said.
Senior setter Kate Lang tied a career high with six kills to go along with a match-high 40 assists and six digs and notched an elusive win over the Gauchos.
The Rainbow Wahine had lost their past three matches against UC Santa Barbara (10-14, 6-6), which would miss the six-team Big West Conference Tournament if the season ended today.
“I just went up to (senior) Tayli (Ikenaga) in the locker room and I was like, this is the last time we will ever play UCSB in the Stan and we just swept them,” Lang said. “I’d like for that to be a big emphasis for my career. We are really trying to create urgency from the two of us seniors knowing this is our last time, so this was definitely a good win for me personally.”
Lang got production from everywhere on the court, especially the middles. Bamis recorded her eighth straight match of at least nine kills and has hit.375 or better in six of those matches.
“This girl works so hard and in spring she was the only middle here,” Lang said of Bamis. “Her playing this year and her overall humility during learning in the spring is definitely showing this season. I think she deserves a lot more credit than she is given.”
The match was a polar opposite from UCSB’s win over Hawaii in which UH failed to record an ace and had just one block.
Lang had two of Hawaii’s four aces in a dominant first set and the Wahine, while only recording three blocks for the match, got their hands on a lot more balls on the net.
The Gauchos had just two blocks and hit.204.
“I think our serve-pass game was way different, ” Ah Mow said. “Going back to the (UCSB loss), I was going over and over the video and that was definitely not us, but the serve-pass game got the middles involved and touching more balls on the pins. We were nonexistent on the blocking (in the first match).”
UCSB was forced into a quick timeout early in the first set as Hawaii jumped out to an 11-5 lead with Alexander getting four kills and Bamis adding three.
Hawaii kept up the pressure and closed out a dominant first set hitting.500, with Alexander slamming home her sixth kill from the back row to end it.
Bamis and Tali Hakas had four kills, and all four of Hawaii’s starting attackers hit at least .375.
“I think the big word was ‘urgency’ and that’s what we had tonight starting from the beginning,” Bamis said. “I feel like the biggest thing was urgency for us, moving on and getting to the ball first.”
UH continued to pour it on in the second set, scoring the first six points to prompt another early UCSB timeout.
The Gauchos battled back to get within a point at 8-7 on a Grace McIntosh ace before Bamis ended a 5-0 UCSB run with a kill.
Hawaii failed to convert on two set points as the Gauchos crawled back to 24-21, prompting Ah Mow to call UH’s second timeout of the set. The Gauchos then hit into the net for their 12th hitting error to put UH ahead 2-0.
Hawaii put the match away in 1 hour, 38 minutes by closing the third set on an 8-2 run. Alexander had nine kills in the final set and Hakas and Victoria Leyva served aces during the run.
The Rainbow Wahine, who have already beaten Cal Poly on the road, host the Mustangs tonight in a match between the two teams in second place in the conference, one game behind UC Davis.
The Aggies lost to UC San Diego on Friday night in five sets.