Box Score Box Score

LOGAN, Utah - The No. 9 University of Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine volleyball team (19-6, 12-0 WAC) survived a scare from the Utah State Aggies (17-10, 9-4) 31-29, 32-34, 24-30, 30-24 and 15-7 at the Dee Smith Spectrum Wednesday, clinching their 10th-straight WAC title.

Jamie Houston came off the bench to lead the Rainbow Wahine with 21 kills, two aces, three blocks and a .389 hitting percentage. Victoria Prince had 14 kills and 11 blocks while Juliana Sanders hit .476 with 12 kills and seven blocks. Tara Hittle added 13 kills, 17 digs and four blocks. Kanoe Kamana`o ended up with 65 assists, 14 digs and five blocks while Ashley Watanabe led all players with 24 digs. Susie Boogaard also came up big, providing seven kills, 12 digs and seven blocks.

The battle started early as USU scored the first three points of game one. Midway through game one, UH got bad news as Sarah Mason went down with an ankle sprain. She missed the rest of the match and will likely miss the rest of the road trip. The two teams then started to trade points with a big 4-1 run putting the Aggies ahead 19-15. UH fought back, tying the score at 21 on a block by Hittle and Kari Gregory. Utah State reached the first game point at 29-28, only to see the Rainbow Wahine run off three-straight, including a block by Boogaard and Prince, ending it at 31-29.

Game two also started out tight until a four-point Aggie run put USU up 11-6. Utah State got their lead to 14-7 and 22-15 before the Rainbow Wahine started a ferocious comeback. Hawai`i ran off a 7-1 run to cut the deficit to 23-22 before taking the lead at 28-26 on a 5-1 run that was capped by back-to-back blocks by Prince. But USU responded, putting away two blocks of their own to tie it at 28, then held off three UH game points before getting their own game point at 32-31. A service error tied it at 32 before the Aggies put away a block and a kill, taking the second game 34-32. The game two loss snapped UH's 31-game winning streak, dating back to Oct. 1.

Utah State got out to an early lead in game three, only to see a 4-0 UH run tie the score at 9-9. Hawai`i used another four-point run to get out to a 14-11 lead. But the Aggies came right back and used an 8-1 run to go up 23-18. From there, the Rainbow Wahine could never really get back in, falling 30-24.

The Aggies were looking to close UH's 103-match WAC winning streak in the fourth game, using a four-point run to go up 9-4. But Hawai`i finally responded, going on a 5-0 run on Hittle's serve, tying it up at 11. The rest of the game would be between Hittle and Houston, as the two leftside hitters combined for 14 kills and two aces, including the game-winner by Houston, taking it 30-24 to force a decisive game five.

Hawai`i got out early in game five-jumping to an 8-4 edge after a five-point run on Houston's serve. Utah State was never able to recover as UH got it to 12-5 before winning the fifth game 15-7 on a block by Prince and Kamana`o. It was the 21st block of the game by the Rainbow Wahine, the most the team has had all season.

UH will have a couple days off before heading to San Jose, Calif., where they will play San Jose State on Nov. 12 at Spartan Gym.

Match Statistics

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