Box Score Box Score

HONOLULU - The No. 12 University of Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine volleyball team (5-4) fell to the No. 23 Cal Poly Mustangs (7-3) 30-22, 21-30, 30-16, 24-30 and 15-17 in front of a crowd of 6,155 at the Stan Sheriff Center Thursday.

Jamie Houston led the way for Hawai`i, posting 27 kills and eight digs while Sarah Mason had 17 kills, 15 digs and five blocks. Juliana Sanders hit .364 with 12 kills and seven blocks while Kari Gregory had 10 kills. Kanoe Kamana`o posted 65 assists and 18 digs with Jayme Lee racking up 24 digs.

Hawai`i looked dominant in the first game as a five-point run on the serve of Nickie Thomas put UH ahead 15-11 at the media timeout. Cal Poly would pull within a couple points on three occasions before a kill by Sanders ended a 12-6 run, giving the Rainbow Wahine a 30-22 game one victory. But in the process, Thomas left the game and was not cleared to return for the rest of the match.

Game two started out very even as Cal Poly's Alicia Waller put away a kill to force the game's sixth tie at 20-20. But that would just start the Mustang run, as they scored 10 of the next 11 points to take the game 30-21.

The back-and-forth match took another turn in game three as UH used a 6-0 run on Lee's serve to open a 7-1 lead. After allowing the Mustangs to pull closer at 8-6, the Rainbow Wahine scored eight of the next nine points to go up 16-7. Hawai`i would get another big run at the end of the game, scoring seven-straight points on Gregory's serve, leading to a 30-16 game three win.

But Cal Poly was there to respond in game four, taking leads of 7-3, 12-17 and 17-8 before UH put up much of a fight. Houston served UH on a five-point run to get within four at 20-16. The Rainbow Wahine even got to 27-24 on a kill by Houston before the Mustangs came up with three-straight, ending game four at 30-24.

After trading points at the start of the fifth game, UH used a 4-1 spurt to take a 8-5 edge into the media timeout. Every time Cal Poly got close again, UH responded, taking a 14-11 lead to hold match point. But the Mustangs didn't give in, holding off three-straight match points to tie the score at 14. Hawai`i got another match point at 15-14 on a kill by Sanders. But Cal Poly stepped up, scoring the final three points on UH errors, taking the game and the match 17-15.

The two teams will play again tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center.

-UH-