Box Score Box Score

HONOLULU - The No. 9 University of Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine volleyball team (6-5, 1-0 WAC) swept the Boise State Broncos (4-4, 0-1 WAC) 30-17, 30-10 and 30-21 in front of a crowd of 6,293 in the Western Athletic Conference opener at the Stan Sheriff Center Thursday.

Raeceen Woolford had the highlight of the night for UH, serving 14 consecutive points in the second game, breaking the school record of 10, held by Kelly Ong in the 2004 NCAA second round match vs. Purdue, while tying her for ninth in the NCAA record book. Sarah Mason came up with 11 kills and a .526 hitting percentage while Jamie Houston had seven kills. Ashley Watanabe led the way in the back row with 16 digs.

Hawai`i started the match a bit slow, spotting the Broncos a 7-6 lead in game one. But UH came back on the serve of Tara Hittle, running off six-straight points to go up 12-7. Hittle would serve another 6-0 run for UH that put them up 26-14, before they ended up taking the first game 30-17.

Boise State opened game two with a 4-3 lead. But after a Bronco service error, Woolford came in to serve. By the time she was done, it was 18-4 in favor of UH and the Rainbow Wahine had put up five kills (four by Mason) and three blocks (two by Juliana Sanders). Hawai`i cruised for the rest of the game with a 5-0 run on the serve of Kanoe Kamana`o guiding UH to a 30-10 victory in game two.

In the third game, UH's bench came in and contributed. Kari Gregory and Nickie Thomas started as the two middles for UH while Jessica Keefe and Kelly Ong also saw significant playing time. Hawai`i took the lead early and never looked back. With the Rainbow Wahine up 26-21, Mason put away three kills while Watanabe had an ace, giving UH game three, 30-21.

Hawai`i will host Loyola Marymount for two non-conference matches tomorrow and Saturday, both at 7 p.m.

Match Statistics

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