Friday’s match against league-leading Cal Poly certainly wasn’t a must-win, but the Hawaii women’s volleyball team sure played like it was.
Showing the same form they displayed in a road sweep of Long Beach State two weeks ago, the Rainbow Wahine needed only three sets to knock off preseason Big West favorite Cal Poly 25-21, 29-27, 25-21 at Mott Athletics Center in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Junior outside hitter Caylen Alexander put down a match-high 18 kills and middle Jacyn Bamis added a career-high 15 kills as Hawaii (11-6, 5-2) knocked the Mustangs (13-6, 6-2) out of first place in the conference.
“I can’t complain. They came out and played tonight, ” Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow said. “The things we actually did to get them ready for it worked out. Our defense today hardly had any balls drop to the ground and I think Kate (Lang ) did a great job distributing the ball.”
Lang, who started her 101st consecutive match at setter, had a match-high 49 assists, nine digs, a career-high five aces and two kills.
Hawaii hit .298 for the match, with four of its attackers hitting.310 or better.
Sophomore Tali Hakas hit a career-high.450 with nine kills and no errors and added 10 digs and four blocks.
“Beating Cal Poly on the road is a huge win. They are a very talented team and I think we knew that going into the game, but coming out of the game knowing what just happened is filling our buckets with confidence,” Lang said. “Tali is Tali, man. She just gets on the court and is the epitome of what I want to be as a defensive player. She gets hit and does not care and is there smiling at the end.”
Hawaii, which entered the match ranked 10th out of 11 teams in the conference in blocks per set, outblocked the Mustangs 5-2.5.
Senior libero Tayli Ikenaga had a match-high 13 digs for UH to move into the top 10 on UH’s career list with 1, 142.
“We knew we were underdogs in that kind of situation, ” Lang said. “Our vibe going into it was honestly just like, we’re playing Cal Poly in their home gym and it’s a really hard gym to play in. Their fans are really loud throughout the entire game, but it was just like the Long Beach State game, where we did everything we had to be doing all of the time.”
The Beach lost to UC Irvine in five sets on Friday to drop into a four-way tie for second place, leaving UC Davis as the only Big West team with one loss in conference play.
Hawaii allowed Cal Poly to hit .345 in the first set but still took care of business when Lang’s well-placed backset caught the Mustangs off guard on set point to go up 1-0.
Lang had four consecutive aces during a 6-0 run to give UH a 20-16 lead after Cal Poly overcame an early five-point deficit to go up by two points.
Hawaii hit .265 in the first set and was led by four kills each from Hakas and Bamis.
Alexander, who entered the week ranked third in the country in kills and kills per set, was held to two kills on seven swings with one error.
“That was clutch,” Ah Mow said of Lang’s service run. “I think she started serving a little bit softer and it made a difference.”
Cal Poly had three set points in the second set to even the match, but Hawaii held off every one.
UH challenged a possible touch on a swing by Bamis that went out of bounds, but the call was upheld, giving the Mustangs the lead at 27-26.
Hawaii rattled off the final three points on kills from Hakas and Bamis and a Tommi Stockham error that ended the set.
Hawaii had 22 kills and hit .340 in the second set. Bamis had eclipsed her previous career high of 11 kills already and Hakas had seven kills with a.583 hitting percentage and six digs and was also in on three of Hawaii’s four blocks.
“(Hakas) has been working on her defense and her passing,” Ah Mow said. “It helps us a lot. We know that she could do the things that she did today. Jacyn is dialed in a bit more. There is a change because she doesn’t want to sit on the bench.”
Bamis did not play in Hawaii’s sweep of Cal State Fullerton after starting UH’s first 11 matches.
She has hit better than .300 in her five matches since and has 44 kills in her past four starts.
Cal Poly pulled even at 20-20 in the fifth set before UH closed on a 5-1 run to pull off its fourth sweep of the season.
A rare service error from Lang gave Cal Poly its final point to make it 21-21 before the Rainbow Wahine ended the match in quick fashion.
Alexander prompted Cal Poly to call a timeout after two quick kills and Bamis and Hakas combined for UH’s fifth block to force set point.
Bamis then put the match away in less than two hours with another kill.
“I know in my heart that if I put her in the best situation, I know she’s going to take it and run with it because she’s just a physical volleyball player, ” Lang said of Bamis. “She can jump for days and it’s really on me. If I put her in the right situations, she is going to do well.”
Hawaii’s three-match road trip continued Saturday with a match at UC Santa Barbara (7-12, 3-4) at 4 p.m.
