Box Score Box Score

HONOLULU -- In a statistical dream match, the No. 12 University of Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine volleyball team (5-4) defeated the No. 20 Santa Clara Broncos (7-2) 30-25, 28-30, 30-19 and 30-25 in front of 6,141 fans at the Stan Sheriff Center Friday night.

Statistically, the Wahine played an unreal match, led by last year's two WAC freshmen of the year Kim Willoughby and Maja Gustin. Willoughby broke a school record for kills in a four-game match, recording a career-high 35 kills while hitting .316 and digging up 16 balls. The old record for kills in a four game-match was 30, held by Diana Jessie almost 15 years ago to the day (September 16, 1986 against UCLA). Gustin had a career-high 23 kills with only three errors, hitting for a .444 percentage.

Lauren Duggins also recorded a career-high in digs with 22. It was the first time a Wahine had over 20 digs this season. Nohea Tano came off the bench and also notched a few career-highs in digs (seven), blocks (three) and kills (five). Setter Margaret Vakasausau also played well with a career-high 58 assists and 10 digs.

Hawai'i breezed through for much of the first game, taking a 28-19 lead before letting the Broncos back in to cut the lead to 28-25. But a Gustin kill and a Santa Clara error gave the Wahine the win at 30-25. In game 2, the two teams played very close with the game seeing 20 ties before the Broncos broke out of a 28-28 tie to win 30-28.

The Wahine then stormed out of the break in game 3, getting their lead as high as 15-7 at the media timeout. The Broncos then scored six straight points to cut the lead to two before rolled on a 15-6 run to win the game 30-19.

Game 4 was also tight as the Wahine couldn't extend their lead past four points before a Santa Clara error gave Hawai'i the match with a 30-25 game 4 win.

The Broncos also had a pretty good match statistically, with four players (Jessie Bechem (16) Becky Potter (12) Jami Bari (11) and Toni Murtore (13)) with double-digit kills. Santa Clara also had four players with double-digit dig nights in Jessie Bechem (12), Becky Potter (12), Jami Bari (10) and Merrin Thompson (11).

The two teams will face off again on Saturday night with a 7 p.m. start time.

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