Box Score Box Score
HONOLULU - The No. 11 University of Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine volleyball team (5-0, 2-0 MLC) used a balanced attack, with five players having double-digit kill nights, to outlast the No. 17 Santa Clara Broncos (3-2, 0-2 MLC) 30-27, 28-30, 30-27 and 30-28 in front of a crowd of 6,144 in the second night of the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Volleyball Challenge.
Victoria Prince led the way with 20 kills and a .410 hitting percentage. Tara Hittle had a career-high 17 kills, 10 digs and three blocks, while Alicia Arnott and Susie Boogaard had 13 kills and 11 digs a piece. Kari Gregory also came up big, putting away 11 kills and six blocks. Kanoe Kamana`o again steadied the UH offense, putting up 64 assists, 11 digs and four kills on just five attempts.
The Rainbow Wahine took a 8-3 lead to start the first game on an overpass kill by Gregory to force SCU Head Coach Jon Wallace to call a timeout. UH continued to hold a big lead until the Broncos went on a big 4-1 run, cutting the deficit to 26-22. Santa Clara got it down to 29-27, but a kill by Arnott put game one away, 30-27.
Hawai`i held a slight 15-13 edge at the media timeout in game two. But the Broncos came storming back, going on a 7-2 run to take a 20-17 lead, forcing UH to take a timeout. Arnott then led a 4-2 Rainbow Wahine run, smacking three kills in the run, cutting it back to 22-21. Santa Clara got to game point at 29-26 before putting it away 30-28.
Prince took over at the start of the third game, scoring four of UH's first five points, pushing the Rainbow Wahine to a 5-3 lead. Hawai`i was able to get their lead to 15-10 before a big 9-3 SCU run put them ahead 19-18. UH got it to 22-19 before the Broncos tied it at 25. Hawai`i responded with a 5-2 run, capped by Prince's seventh kill of the game, to win 30-27 in game three.
Game four went back-and-forth early on, as neither team had a lead of more than three points. Santa Clara built up a 25-22 lead late before a big 4-0 run on the serve of Kamana`o gave UH back the lead at 26-25. The Rainbow Wahine got it to match-point at 29-27 on a solo block by Gregory before Boogaard put away the final kill, giving Hawai`i the 30-28 win in game four.
match statistics
Earlier in the night, No. 3 UCLA swept through Southwest Missouri State.
-uh-