Box Score Box Score

HONOLULU - The No. 4 University of Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine (1-3, 1-1 HAL) fell to the No. 5 Penn State Nittany Lions (4-1, 3-0 HAL) 30-22, 30-27, 27-30, 18-30 and 15-11 in front of a crowd of 7,573 in the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic Friday, ending the Rainbow Wahine's 39-match home winning streak. With a perfect 3-0 record, Penn State clinched the classic title.

The loss marked the first time that Hawai`i lost a match after winning the first two games since Dec. 11, 1998, when UH fell to Florida in the NCAA Regional Final match.

Jamie Houston led the way for UH, putting away 23 kills while hitting .281. Susie Boogaard added 17 kills while Victoria Prince had 12 kills and six blocks. Kanoe Kamana`o had a great all-around match with 61 assists, 14 digs and seven blocks. Ashley Watanabe led Hawai`i with 25 digs.

Houston got the Rainbow Wahine started, scoring four of UH's first five points, putting them up 5-3. Hawai`i continued to hold a slight edge at 12-8 before a big 5-0 run by the Nittany Lions put PSU up 13-12. It stayed close until a big 8-1 run by Hawai`i blew the UH lead to 24-17. From there, Hawai`i pushed their way to a 30-22 win in game one.

Game two saw the Rainbow Wahine go up early and never look back as they ran off five-straight points to end it at 30-17.

Penn State came out of the break on a mission though, jumping out to a quick 8-4 lead to start game three, forcing an early UH timeout. But Hawai`i bounced back as a quick 5-1 run tied the game at 10. The Rainbow Wahine held a 15-13 lead before the Nittany Lions launched a torrid comeback, scoring 11 of the next 13 points to go up 24-17. Penn State got to game point at 29-23, only to see UH score four-straight points on back-to-back kills by Houston and back-to-back blocks by Cayley Thurlby and Kari Gregory. But it was too-little-too-late as Nicole Fawcett, who ended with a match-high 26 kills, put away the game-winner for PSU at 30-27.

The Nittany jumped out early, taking leads of 8-3 and 13-7. Hawai`i staged a comeback in the middle of the game with a 5-1 run to make it 16-13. But Penn State wouldn't be stopped as they used a 12-3 run to push to a 30-18 victory in game four.

Penn State scored the first two points of the fifth game and were up 4-2 before the two teams traded sideouts for the next 18 points. With the score at 13-11, Kate Price took PSU on her back, putting away the final two kills to win the game 15-11 and the match 3-2.

Hawai`i will close out the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic on Sunday, Sept. 4, against Western Michigan. The match will be played at 4 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Match Statistics

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