Box Score Box Score

HONOLULU - The No. 2 University of Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine (23-0, 13-0 WAC) came back from two games down to beat the Nevada Wolf Pack (18-7, 10-3) 27-30, 33-35, 30-20, 30-26 and 15-6 in front of a near-capacity crowd of 9,875 on senior night at the Stan Sheriff Center, finishing their sixth-staight undefeated WAC season.

Alicia Arnott again led the way for the Rainbow Wahine with 25 kills, 10 digs and five blocks. Kanoe Kamana`o ended the night with 61 assists, 16 digs and four blocks while Victoria Prince had 13 kills, eight blocks and four aces. Tara Hittle added 13 kills, 15 digs and three blocks while Susie Boogaard had 17 kills and 11 digs.

Seniors Melody Eckmier and Teisa Fotu had good matches in their final regular season home matches. Eckmier had three kills and four blocks (two solo and two assists) while Fotu had seven digs.

Nevada jumped out to a 10-4 lead early in the first game, serving notice that they were ready to take the Rainbow Wahine to the limit. Hawai`i battled back though, taking thier first lead at 18-17 on a five-point run served by Ashley Watanabe. Hawai`i got their lead to three at 22-19 before a ferocious run by the Wolf Pack, going 7-1, made it 26-23 Nevada. The teams battled the rest of the way, trading points as the Wolf Pack put away game point on a kill by Carly Sorensen.

Game two also went back and forth most of the way as there were 22 ties in the game. Down by two, the Wolf Pack came back to take a lead 27-26 on a three-point run on the serve of Salaia Salavea. Hawai`i got to game point at 29-28, and held five game points. But Nevada fought them all off, ending the game with three-straight points to take game two 35-33 and hold a two games-to-none lead.

That is when the Rainbow Wahine started their big come back. Nevada kept the third game close for a while, as they were down only 19-15 before Prince's serve led the Rainbow Wahine on a 8-0 run, that all-but-put the game away at 27-15, before putting they officially put it away at 30-20.

Hawai`i kept it rolling at the start of game four, jumping out to a 13-5 edge. But Nevada came right back and took a 14-4 run to take the lead at 19-17. It remained close the rest of the way until Prince's serve again put UH over-the-top, scoring four consecutive crucial points to get Hawai`i to the 30-26 game four win.

By the time the Rainbow Wahine got to game five, they were on fire. Prince took the first UH serve and ran with it, pushing Hawai`i to a 5-0 lead to force a Nevada timeout. But it was too late for the Wolf Pack to regroup as UH would get it to 9-3 and 12-4 before a kill by Prince put the match away, 15-6.

Salaia Salave`a led Nevada with 21 kills, 13 digs and seven blocks. Carly Sorensen added 14 kills and five blocks while Teal Ericson added 11 kills. Setter Tristin Adams also came up big with 50 assists, nine kills and nine digs.

Hawai`i will now head to Reno, Nev., for the WAC Tournament, which will run from Nov. 19-21. UH earned the top seed in the tournament. The pairings for the tournament will come out on Sunday, Nov. 14.

Match Statistics

-uh-