Rainbow Wahine sweep host Grand Canyon in 3 cliffhanger sets
· Yahoo Sports
Hawaii’s first true road setting of the season didn’t change the result of most of its matches this season.
The Rainbow Wahine remained undefeated in Mountain West Conference play and have now won 26 of their past 30 sets played after sweeping Grand Canyon 25-23, 25-23, 25-20 on Friday at Global Credit Union Arena in Phoenix.
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Panna Ratkai put down a match-high 14 kills with 11 digs and Miliana Sylvester hit .529 with 11 kills to lead Hawaii (11-3, 3-0) in its first-ever match against the Lopes (7-7, 1-2).
The Rainbow Wahine hit less than .200 in a match for the first time against a non-power conference opponent since opening weekend but held Grand Canyon, which entered the week leading the conference in hitting percentage at .257, to a .179 clip.
UH, which is 8-2 at home this season, went 2-1 in a neutral court tournament in Las Vegas. This was its first road match against a host opponent.
“The hardest thing to do in college athletics is to go on the road and win a conference game,” Hawaii coach Joshua Walker said in a post-match phone interview. “It’s always going to be tough. I was telling the girls before we went out on the court that things aren’t going to be simple. You’re not going to play your best, but in the end finding a way to win in those situations is what could be the difference.”
Victoria Leyva led four Hawaii players in double figures in digs with 18. Tali Hakas added 15 digs and Cameron Holcomb had a career-high 11 digs and an ace for UH.
Setter Adrianna Arquette had 30 assists, seven digs, two kills and a season-high three aces.
Hawaii had six aces and eight service errors. Grand Canyon finished with three aces and 12 service errors.
“Our serve and pass has continued to be who we are,” Walker said. “Obviously we were just better than them tonight in the serve and pass game and for us, you’re not expecting to be perfect, you’re not expecting to be clean, you’re just expected to find ways to be better than them and that’s what we did.”
Both teams entered the media timeout siding out at more than 85%, with Hawaii holding onto a 15-14 lead.
Ratkai, who had six kills in 18 swings in the opening set, put down two in a row to give Hawaii its first set point at 24-21.
After the Lopes scored the next two points, Walker called timeout and Rachel Purser ended a long rally with a kill to give UH the opening set despite not playing its best.
Hawaii made six hitting errors and hit .174. Grand Canyon hit .256 but was hurt by six service errors.
Ratkai had Hawaii’s only ace, but UH served out just twice.
“That’s been us all season. That’s why we’ve been able to win games and blow out teams as well,” Walker said. “We’ve been consistent from the service line. We go back there and we know what we’re going to do and that’s what we need to continue to harp on.”
Grand Canyon had a chance to tie the second set at 19-all when Hawaii recorded its first block on a double stuff from Purser and Ratkai.
Ratkai followed that up with her second ace, prompting the Lopes to call timeout trailing 21-18.
GCU rallied with four straight points to tie it at 22-all. Hawaii benefited from a service error by the Lopes at 23-23 and Hakas buried one of her three kills to keep Hawaii without a set loss in conference play.
Hawaii moved Cha’lei Reid to the left side and brought in Maeli Cormier to play opposite in the third set and finished with its best hitting percentage in a set at .200 in the third.
The set was tied 18 times before Hawaii closed on a 6-2 run to earn the sweep.
Reid, who had three of her six kills in the final set, put down the final ball to give Hawaii its seventh sweep of the season and sixth in the past eight matches.
“Once again, just trying to find solutions,” Walker said of the lineup in the third set. “Those (first two) sets were close and you could look at them either way. We won two sets, but we could have been down two sets. To me we were still trying to find out a way to max out the talent we had on the court. Sometimes we have to go deeper on the bench to be able to find solutions and move players around. It makes our team better to have Cha’lei out there.”
The two teams will play again today at 3 p.m.