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HONOLULU—The No. 15 University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team (7-4, 0-0 Big West) defeated Pepperdine (6-6, 0-0 West Coast) in four sets, 25-14, 25-18, 23-25, 25-12 to finish their non-conference portion of their schedule. McKenna Granato led all players with 17 kills while Emily Maglio posted a match-high eight blocks on Saturday night in the Stan Sheriff Center.
 
Granato hit .344 for the night, with just six errors on 32 swings. She was just one dig shy of recording her second double-double of her career with nine digs. She also had a block, an assist and a service ace.
 
Maglio continued her high-percentage hitting, recording eight kills with just two errors on 17 attacks for a .353 hitting percentage. She was just one block shy of tying her career-high of nine set earlier this season against Pacific (Sept. 2).
 
Senior opposite Nikki Taylor was very busy against the Waves. She notched 14 kills, five blocks, eight digs and four service aces, brining her two-day total to 11 aces against Pepperdine. Taylor leads UH with 25 service aces in just eight matches played this season.
 
Senior Annie Mitchem once again played on the leftside and buried a career-high 11 kills, hitting .226 with four errors on 31 attempts. She also tied her career-high with two service aces  while picking up two blocks and three digs in just her second match back from injury.
 
Redshirt freshman Natasha Burns came off the bench to play middle and she tallied a career-high five blocks and was just one kill shy of tying her career-high with five kills as well.
 
Fellow freshman, setter Norene Iosia recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 44 assists and 12 digs and also posted a career-high with five blocks.
 
The first set was tight early on, but a Mitchem and Maglio block sparked a 6-0 run with Taylor behind the service line (which included a pair of aces) to extend their lead from 14-12 to 20-12. Clare-Marie Anderson then served the final four points of the set to take the frame going away, 25-14.
 
In the second set, UH was very efficient, siding out on 16-of-19 opportunities for an 84% rate. Hawai'i did not score in bunches, but slowly pulled away to win the set, 25-18. Both Taylor and Mitchem led UH with five kills apiece in the set.
 
Hawai'i led throughout much of the third set and was on cruise control, leading by as many as six points at 16-10. But the Waves would make a run at the end while UH was unable to close out the set. Pepperdine scored nine of the last 11 points to steal the set from Hawai'i with Nikki Lyons going on a four-point serving run at the end to give the Waves set point. UH then served into the net to fall in the third, 25-23.
 
The Rainbow Wahine, however, regrouped and came out firing in the fourth set. Mitchem went on a seven-point serving run to give the 'Bows a 10-2 lead from which Pepperdine was unable to recover from. Hawai'i pulled away in the fourth to win, 25-12.
 
The Manoa Roofing Company was in full effect, out-blocking the Waves, 13.0-to-5.0. The 13 team blocks was a season-high and the most since UH had 14.0 at Long Beach State last November. Hawai'i out-hit the Waves, 56-to-36 in kills and .289-to-.106 in percentage. UH also had 11 aces to Pepperdine's four.
 
Hannah Frohling led Pepperdine with 12 kills and Heidi Dyer tallied a team-high three blocks.
 
Hawai'i now hits the road to open play in the Big West Conference  as they begin to defend their 2015 title. UH will take on UC Santa Barbara, who has the best record in the conference at 9-4 first on Friday, Sept. 23. UH will then face Cal Poly (7-4) on Saturday, Sept. 24. Both matches are slated to start at 7:00 p.m.