Box Score Box Score

HONOLULU - The No. 3 University of Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine (17-0, 7-0 WAC) defeated the Rice Owls (18-3, 7-1) 35-37, 30-24, 30-28 and 30-15 in front of a crowd of 7,453 on the 10th anniversary of the Stan Sheriff Center Thursday.

Kanoe Kamana`o had another great match, putting up 53 assists, 17 digs, seven blocks and two aces. Victoria Prince hit .464 with 16 kills and eight blocks while Alicia Arnott had 17 kills and 10 digs. Melody Eckmier and Ashley Watanabe came up with big matches off the bench, as Eckmier had six blocks in just a little over one game played while Watanabe had 22 digs and an ace, playing only three games at libero. Tara Hittle added 14 kills and 10 digs while Susanne Boogaard had 13 kills, four blocks, seven digs and two aces.

Game one quickly let the crowd know what it was in for, as neither team held a lead of more than two points. Rice got to game-point first, on Rebeca Pazo's eighth kill, which gave Pazo the Owls' school record for career kills. Hittle and Boogaard then put away back-to-back kills to tie the game at 29. Hawai`i then got to four-straight game points, before Pazo's ninth kill of the game gave them their second game point at 34-33. The Owls would have three key service errors late in the game, as the crowd started to really get into it. The two teams continued to fight it out until a UH hitting error finally gave Rice game one, 37-35.

An inspired Hawai`i team came out in game two, taking a big three-point run to go up 14-11, forcing a timeout by Rice. From there, the Rainbow Wahine kept it rolling, as Prince put away her ninth kill of the match to give UH the game 30-24.

The Rainbow Wahine again started out well in the third game, jumping out to a 13-10 edge. But Rice responded with five-straight points, capped by two straight blocks, making it 15-13 Rice going into the media timeout. The Owls got their lead up to 24-19 before UH finally started to make their run, reeling off an 8-3 run, capped by an Eckmier block, to tie the score at 27-27. Lindsey Carter gave Rice back the lead at 28-27 before Hawai`i came back with three-straight points, taking the third game 30-27 on an ace by Kamana`o.

Rice opened a 10-7 advantage to start game four before Prince served eight-straight points to put Hawai`i up 15-10. Watanabe then went on another big run, serving eight-straight points to get it to 27-14. Prince and Kamana`o fittingly ended the night, combining for the block for match-point, taking it 30-15.

The Rainbow Wahine will have a quick turnaround, as they will face Tulsa tomorrow at 7 p.m.

Match Statistics

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