Box Score Box Score

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - For just the second time in its storied history, the No. 1 Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine (28-0) finished the regular season undefeated after a 30-28, 18-30, 30-16, 30-26, victory over No. 19 Utah (23-6), Wednesday, at Crimson Court.

Junior Victoria Prince finished with a team-high 18 kills, nine blocks and hit .500. Middle hitter Juliana Sanders came off the bench and added seven kills in eight swings, hit .875 and had three blocks in just two games. Sophomore setter Kanoe Kamana`o led the Rainbow Wahine attack with 52 assists, nine digs, and four blocks. Left-side hitter Susie Boogaard had 12 kills and eight blocks while Ashley Watanabe led the team with 17 digs in the back row.

The 1995 squad also finished the regular season 28-0 but had their season come to an end at the hands of Michigan State in the NCAA Regional finals.

The Rainbow Wahine came out fired up after a sluggish start at Utah State the previous night. Hawai`i opened a 6-2 advantage at the start on consecutive kills by Hittle. UH pushed it to 10-4 and 14-6 before a Utah timeout. The Utes got back into the game after the break, running off a 7-2 blitz to cut it to 16-13. Utah was able to pull within a point on a few occasions before a Kamana`o dump gave UH game point at 29-27. After giving up a kill, Prince put away her sixth kill of the game on the slide to give Hawai`i game one, 30-28.

Utah jumped the Rainbow Wahine early in the second game, getting out to 9-5 and 14-9 leads before three points by UH, highlighted by two blocks by Boogaard, cutting the deficit to 14-12. But the Utes would get their momentum back after a timeout, going on an amazing 14-4 run that put Utah's advantage to 28-16. Hawai`i would end the second game with only six kills to Utah's 23, falling 30-18.

UH came out of the 10-minute break between games two and three ready to go as Sanders came off the bench to run off the first four points (three kills and a block) as the Rainbow Wahine held a 4-1 edge. The Utes made their run, tying it at nine, before a four-point UH run made it 13-9, forcing a Utah timeout. UU got within two at 15-13 before Hawai`i caught fire, reeling off 12-straight points, making it 27-13 before allowing the Utes to breathe again. Utah got three more points, but that would be it as UH took it 30-16.

Hawai`i again opened well in game four, going up 4-1 on consecutive blocks. Then Sanders made her run again, coming in to get two kills and a block to make it 9-4. Utah got within three points at 11-8 and two points at 17-15 and 18-16 before the Rainbow Wahine ran off five points to push their lead to 23-16. The Utes had one final run as Emillie Toone put away a kill and a block to cap a 4-1 run, cutting the deficit to 27-24. Hawai`i and Utah traded sideouts the rest of the way as a Ute service error ended it 30-26.

UH will now await the announcement of their NCAA seeding, which will come out on Sunday, Nov. 28, at 1:40 p.m. on ESPNews.

Match Statistics

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