Box Score Box Score

HONOLULU - The No. 7 University of Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine volleyball (3-1, 1-1 HAL) defeated the Colorado Buffaloes (1-2, 0-2) 32-30, 30-23 and 30-20 in the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic in front of a crowd of 7,071 at the Stan Sheriff Center Saturday. The win earned UH Head Coach Dave Shoji his 900th career victory in 32 years at the helm of the program.

The Rainbow Wahine outblocked the Buffaloes 17-4 while hitting a season-high .357 in the matche. Jamie Houston led the charge for Hawai`i, posting 17 kills, a .343 hitting percentage and five blocks. Tara Hittle hit .464 with 14 kills while UH's middles, Juliana Sanders (seven kills, nine blocks, .412 hitting) and Kari Gregory (eight kills, eight blocks, .500 hitting) made big contributions. Kanoe Kamana`o had another great match with 48 assists, eight digs and five blocks.

Colorado came out firing in the first game, taking a 8-4 lead. UH pulled back a little, being down just 15-13 at the media timeout, before a three-point run, on two kills and one block by Gregory, gave UH their first lead at 16-15. Hawai`i got it up to 23-19 before CU made a 6-1 run, taking the lead back at 25-24. The Rainbow Wahine were first to get to game point at 29-28 on consecutive Houston kills, only to see two points by the Buffs give CU game point at 30-29. But kills by Houston and Hittle fought it off before a CU error ended game one 32-30.

Game two started out as a back-and-forth struggle until a 4-0 run capped by two Gregory blocks made it 11-7 in favor of the 'Bows. From there, UH never looked back, getting their lead as high as 23-15 and 28-21 before another block by Kamana`o and Gregory ended it 30-23.

Hawai`i jumped out 7-3 to start the third game, only to see the Buffs come back to get within a point at 9-8 on a 5-1 run. UH scored four-straight to take a 15-11 edge into the media timeout, but CU responded with a 4-0 run of their own, tying it at 15 to force a timeout by Shoji. That was when Hawai`i caught fire, scoring the next nine points to push their lead to 24-15. Colorado got within seven at 26-19, only to see the Rainbow Wahine score three of the last four to take game three, 30-20.

Colorado will play No. 5 Florida at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow, followed by the UCLA-Hawai`i match, scheduled for 5 p.m.

-UH-