Box Score Box Score

RUSTON, La. - The No. 13 University of Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine volleyball team (9-3, 3-0 WAC) defeated the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters (5-11, 0-3) 23-30, 30-12, 30-19 and 30-25 at the Lambright Intramural Center Thursday.

Jamie Houston ended the match with 22 kills, seven digs and four blocks, including kills to score the final five points of the match. Aneli Cubi-Otineru added 15 kills and 15 digs, although she made her biggest impact behind the service line. Cubi-Otineru served 15-straight points in the second game, tying the school record held by Karolyn Kootnekoff while breaking the rally-scoring record of 14 by Lily Kahumoku and Raeceen Woolford.

Elizabeth Ka`aihue had a match-high 23 digs while Tara Hittle posted six blocks, nine kills and eight digs. Juliana Sanders hit .400 with nine kills and five blocks.

Hawai`i looked like they were in control early in the first game, going ahead 8-3 on a kill by Houston. Tech used a four-point run to cut it back to 10-9. The Lady Techsters later tied the score at 12-12 before taking their first lead of the game at 15-14. A kill by Amber Kaufman built the UH lead to 19-17 before LTU went on a huge 10-1 run, taking a 27-20 advantage. Hawai`i was able to cut it back to 27-22 before Tech finished the job, taking game one 30-23. It was the first game that the Lady Techsters have ever taken off the Rainbow Wahine in 10 meetings.

UH was fired up to start game two, scoring the first four points on back-to-back kills by Cubi-Otineru and an ace by Stephanie Brandt. LTU responded with five points to take a 5-4 edge. The score stayed tight as UH held a slight 12-11 advantage. Hittle put away a kill to get Hawai`i the serve and Cubi-Otineru took over. She served 16-straight points, getting the Rainbow Wahine a 28-11 lead. When LTU finally stopped the bleeding, it was too late as Hawai`i won game two, 30-12.

Tech came out with a five-point run to go ahead 5-1 at the start of the third game. Behind 7-3, UH made a small run to tie the score at 10-10, with a block by the Lady Techsters giving LTU a 11-10 edge. Following a kill by Sanders, Brandt served nine points in a row to go ahead 20-11. A five-point Tech run cut it back to 22-17, before Hawai`i put it away. Scoring eight of the last 10 points, the Rainbow Wahine won game three, 30-19.

Game four was a close game that saw 16 ties and six lead changes. LTU used a four-point run to take a 22-20 edge late. But Hawai`i tooke the lead back at 24-23 on a block by Hittle and Kari Gregory. From there, Houston took over, putting away four-straight kills over the Tech block to get UH to match point at 29-24. The Lady Techsters delayed the victory for one point before Houston dropped her 22nd kill of the match to push the Rainbow Wahine to a 30-25 game four win.

Hawai`i now heads to Las Cruces, N.M., where they will face No. 25 New Mexico State on Saturday, Sept. 22, at 7 p.m. (3 p.m. HST).

-UH-