Politixia
Box Score HONOLULU — University of Hawai’i senior middle blocker Amber Igiede capped a milestone evening with her team-leading 15th kill and the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team served up 14 aces in a four-set victory over Southern California on Saturday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
Two nights after Hawai’i (4-1) outlasted the USC (1-4) in a five-set thriller, the teams split two tights sets to open the rematch before the Rainbow Wahine ran away with the third set and held off the Women of Troy in the fourth to close out the 27-25, 23-25, 25-18, 25-23 victory and complete a sweep of the two-match series before the largest crowd of the season (7,282).
Igiede led a balanced UH attack with just one error to hit a season-best .609 on her 23 attempts and passed the 1,000-kill mark for her career in the third set, becoming the 21st player in program history to join the club and first since McKenna Granato accomplished the feat in 2018. Igiede also served up three aces and recorded six digs and two blocks.
Collectively, the Rainbow Wahine posted the program’s highest service ace total since firing 16 in a five-set win at Cal State Northridge on Oct. 14, 2017. Outside hitter Riley Wagoner set a career high with four aces to go along with 14 kills and eight digs.
Outside hitter Caylen Alexander also finished with 14 kills while freshman outside hitter Tali Hakas recorded her first career double-double with 11 kills and 13 digs.
Setter Kate Lang posted her second double-double of the season and 23rd of her career with 47 assists and 13 digs and also matched a career high with three aces.
UH held a slim lead early in the first set until USC went on a 6-1 run to leapfrog into the lead at 15-14. Hawai’i regained the lead with a three-point run to move ahead 20-18. But the Trojans scored four of the next five points to go in front, 22-21 and UH responded with a 3-1 run for a 24-23 advantage. USC then staved off two set points before UH ended the first frame with an Alexander kill and a service ace by Igiede.
After a tie at 5-5 in the second set, the Trojans never trailed on their way to squaring the match. UH tied the score at 13-13 on Igiede’s second ace, but USC scored four-straight points to lead 17-13. Hawai’i responded on a serving run with Lang behind the service line to tie the score at 17-17 and forced two more ties before USC outside hitter Skylar Fields put away three of the Trojans’ final five points of the set.
Coming out of the intermission, UH scored four of its first eight points of the third set from the service line and opened up a 12-6 lead on a block by Hakas and Evans to end an extended rally. The Wahine maintained control through the remainder of the set to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
The Wahine surged to a 15-7 lead in the fourth set but USC later went on a 10-2 run to catch and pass UH 20-19. Alexander answered with a kill and the Wahine reclaimed the lead with a Lang ace and Hakas’ final kill. The Wahine were able to side out to the end the match with Igiede’s tip landing on UH’s second match point.
Fields led USC with a match-high 22 kills on 56 attempts and Lindsey Miller had a match-high six blocks.
Next up: Hawai’i hosts the OUTRIGGER Volleyball Challenge which runs Thursday, Sept. 7, Friday Sept. 8, and Sunday Sept. 10 at the SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
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