Box Score   |  Box Score (html)
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS (Courtesy of OCSports)
PHOTO GALLERY (Courtesy of Andrew Lee)

HONOLULU—The No. 16 University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team (8-1, 0-0 Big West) captured the Outrigger Resorts Volleyball Challenge title with a four-set win over Eastern Washington, 25-19, 25-19, 22-25, 25-20. Nikki Taylor buried a game-high 19 kills—nine of which came in the fourth set alone—en route to being named the tourney's Most Outstanding Player. Tai Manu-Olevao and Olivia Magill both earned all-tournament honors and both recorded 10 kills apiece against EWU.
 
For the second straight match, UH had three players with double-digit kills. Taylor led the way, as she has in every match thus far this season. She tallied a tournament-high 57 kills over three matches, averaging 4.75 kills per set with a .252 hitting percentage. She also recorded nine service aces, 27 digs and 16 blocks. It is the second time this season that Taylor has been named the tourney's Most Outstanding player after earning the award in the first week of the season in the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational. On Saturday, she recorded a career-high three aces with eight digs and five blocks to go with her game-high kill total.
 
Magill led UH for the tournament with 20 total blocks and she was third on the team with 23 kills. Against the Eagles on Saturday, Magill hit .333 (10-2-24) with a team-high eight blocks.
 
Manu-Olevao finished second on the team this week with 31 total kills. She added five blocks and 13 digs over the three days. On Saturday night she added two blocks and two digs in the four-set win over EWU.

Clare-Marie Anderson recorded a pair of career-high numbers vs. the Eagles. She popped up nine digs and served a pair of aces--both new career-mark. Anderson was a defensive specialist for the first two sets, then played as the libero in the final two sets. 
 
Early in the first set, both teams were close and UH could not quite shake the Eagles off. With the score at 13-11 the 'Bows started a five point run on Taylor's serve to take an 18-11 lead and they never looked back in the frame. The Rainbow Wahine won the first set, 25-19.
 
The second set saw the Eagles at one point winning 8-of-9 points to take a 10-5 lead. Kendra Koelsh then came in to set and helped to bring the 'Bows back to tie the game at 12-12. After two more ties, UH gained momentum down the stretch, scoring the final seven straight points on Taylor's tough serve to win the second set, 25-19 to take a 2-0 lead.
 
Although UH raced out to an 8-3 lead in the third set, the scrappy Eagles kept chipping away until they erased the five point deficit to tie the game at 14-14. The 'Bows tried to pull away, but EWU kept reeling UH back in. The two teams tied each other 10 times in the third set, the last coming at 22-22. UH had led 22-20, but UH was called for a lift to go with two attack errors to give the lead back to Eastern Washington. The Eagles closed the set winning the final five points to steal the frame, 25-22.
 
Taylor then helped lift the Rainbow Wahine to the win in the fourth set, notching nine kills in 15 swings with just three errors. Once again, on Taylor's serve, UH was able to score five straight points to give UH an early 8-6 lead. Hawai'i maintained that slim lead the rest of the set and eventually won, 25-20 to defeat Eastern Washington in four.
 
Hawai'i is 8-1 for the first time since the 2013 season when UH started  at 11-1.
 
It marked the 17^th time that UH has won the Outrigger Resorts tournament as well as the 17th time that a UH player was named the tourney's Most Outstanding Player.
 
Outrigger Resorts Volleyball Challenge All-Tournament Team
Bayley Little, San Diego State
Allie Schumacher, Eastern Washington
Rhamat Alhassan, Florida
Nikki O'Rourke, Florida
Olivia Magill, Hawai'i
Tai Manu-Olevao, Hawai'i
 
Most Outstanding Player
Nikki Taylor, Hawai'i