HONOLULU—The University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team (7-5, 1-0 Big West) came back from a set down to defeat UC Irvine (12-2, 0-1 Big West) in their Big West opener, 18-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-21. UH won its fifth-straight match while snapping UCI's six-match win streak on Friday night at the Stan Sheriff Center. Sophomore setter Norene Iosia ran a balanced offensive attack with three Rainbow Wahine notching double-digits in kills, led by Emily Maglio's 13.
 
Iosia dished out 42 assists and passed the 1,400 career assist mark in the match. She finished the match with 1,434 career assists. She also recorded her fourth straight and eighth overall double-double this season with 12 digs in the game. Iosia was in on four blocks with a kill.
 
Maglio led UH with 13 kills and no errors in 28 swings for a match-high .464 hitting percentage. She also recorded a match-high seven blocks in the win. It marked the eighth time this season that Maglio has put down double-figure kills.
 
Junior outside hitter McKenna Granato buried 12 kills in the match to pass the 500 career-kill mark. She needed just 10 coming into the match to reach the milestone and finished with 502 total. Granato tallied five digs with a block, an assist and two service aces. Fellow junior outside hitter Casey Castillo added 10 kills with three blocks.
 
Senior libero Savanah Kahakai posted a match-high 24 digs and had two assists in the match. It marked the seventh time this season that she was in double-figures in digs and it was the fourth time this year that she recorded 20 digs in a match.
 
Kendra Koelsh, UH's senior outside hitter who is a converted setter, went past the 100 career kill mark with eight kills in the match to bring her career total to 104.
 
In the first set, UH got the first point on a Maglio kill, but the Anteaters proceeded to reel off six-straight points to force the 'Bows to call an early timeout. UC Irvine led by as many as nine points midway through the set, but UH kept battling and closed to within three points at 21-18. UC Irvine however pulled away scoring the last four straight points to take the first set, 25-18.
 
In the middle of the second set, UH went on a 5-to-1 run and took an 18-13 lead that forced a UCI timeout. The Anteaters could not recover from the deficit as UH went on to win the frame, 25-22 to even the match at 1-1 as the teams went into intermission.
 
The third set was a tight affair with three early ties. But with UH trailing 4-5, the 'Bows scored four straight behind the serving of Gianna Guinasso to give UH an 8-5 lead. The 'Bows would maintain their lead the rest of the way to win Set 3, 25-20.
 
In the fourth set, both teams were fighting hard. After nine ties (the last coming at 19-19) and four lead changes, UH slowly pulled away and held off the Anteaters to seal their win, 25-21.
 
UH out-hit UCI, .243-to-.194 and out-blocked the Anteaters, 11.0-to-5.0.
 
UC Irvine was led by Haley DeSales who had a match-high 17 kills.
 
The win brought their home conference win streak to 20 matches dating back to 2014.
 
Hawai'i will take on the Aggies of UC Davis on Saturday, Sept. 23 at 7:00 p.m. in the Stan Sheriff Center.