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HONOLULU - The No. 11 University of Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine volleyball team (26-5) swept through the Loyola Marymount Lions (16-13) 30-22, 30-24 and 30-27 in front of a crowd of 6,597 on Senior Night at the Stan Sheriff Center Wednesday.

Juliana Sanders had a great senior night, hitting .647 with 13 kills and five blocks. Jamie Houston concluded a great regular season, hitting .429 with 22 kills and five blocks. Aneli Cubi-Otineru had 13 kills and four blocks while Tara Hittle chimed in 11 kills and 15 digs while hitting .429. Kari Gregory started her final regular season home match, posting five blocks.

Hawai`i broke through early in game one, using a 9-3 run to go ahead 13-9. UH would later go on a five-point run, pushing their advantage to 19-12. From there, it wasn't close, as UH got to game point at 29-19 before finishing gmae one 30-22.

The Rainbow Wahine kept it going at the start of game two, taking a lead of 8-4. A four-point run by LMU tied it at 10-10. The Lions tied it again at 20-20 before UH ran away. Hawai`i scored five of the next six points to get ahead 25-21. The Rainbow Wahine would then close it out by scoring four of the last five points, taking it 30-24.

LMU used an early 7-1 run to go ahead 7-3 in game three. Hawai`i pulled within two points at 8-6, only to see a three-point Lion run push the deficit to 11-6. LMU kept the lead until a three-point run on the serve of Elizabeth Ka`aihue tied the score at 22-22. Hawai`i finally pulled through later in the game, using a 5-1 run to go ahead 28-25 before closing it out 30-27.

The Rainbow Wahine will now wait until Sunday, Nov. 25, when the NCAA Tournament brackets and seeding are released on ESPNU at 3 p.m. UH received the automatic bid to the tournament from the Western Athletic Conference by winning last week's WAC Tournament in Las Cruces, N.M.

-UH-