Box Score Box Score
HONOLULU -- The No. 10 University of Hawai'i Wahine volleyball team (3-4, 1-1 AIWC) fell to the No. 6 USC Women of Troy (3-1, 2-0 AIWC) 30-17, 30-19 and 33-31 in the second night of the Aston's Imua Wahine Challenge Friday night. The match was seen by 6,728 fans at the Stan Sheriff Center.
Despite falling in straight sets, the Wahine did end the match on a bit of a high note. Down 25-21, Maja Gustin single-handedly brought Hawai'i back by scoring on four consecutive kills to tie the match at 20. Gustin also scored the next Wahine point to tie the game at 26. After a USC point, Kim Willoughby came back with a kill to tie the match again at 27 before a contraversial call gave the Women of Troy the one point lead again at 28-27. Another Willoughby kill tied the game at 28 and then a broken play that resulted in a Margaret Vakasausau kill and the 29-29 tie. Melody Eckmier and Nohea Tano then shut down a USC attack to take the 30-29 lead and gave the Wahine their first game point of the night. But the Women of Troy didn't back down, taking game point at 31-30 before ending the game and the match, 33-31.
Willoughby again led the Wahine attack with a match high 21 kills and 18 digs. Gustin's late match heroics gave her 15 kills on the night, while middle hitter Laured Duggins added five kills and 12 digs.
The Wahine were able to stay close in the beginning of game 1, keeping the USC lead at 10-9. But a 14-3 Women of Troy run lead to the 30-17 game 1 win.
The Wahine again kept game 2 tight in the beginning as an awesome pancake dig by Duggins led to a Willoughby kill on a long rally that cut the USC lead to 5-4. Willoughby went up for another big hit with the score 8-6, but a dig that went off a the Women of Troy's Nicole Davis' feet somehow made it over the tape and landed on the Hawai'i side to extend the USC lead to 9-6. Hawai'i faught back to tie the game at 11, before USC went on a big 6-0 run that led them to the 30-19 win.
The Wahine will square off with Cincinnati tomorrow with a 1 p.m. start time. The Women of Troy will then face Utah State at 3 p.m. to end the Imua Challenge.
