HONOLULU—The University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team (11-6, 7-1 Big West) downed CSUN in four sets, 25-18, 17-25, 25-20, 25-20 to end the first half of the Big West season. Hawai'i's offense had a balanced attack with four Rainbow Wahine putting down double-digits in kills, led by Natasha Burns, Casey Castillo and Sarah Liva all with 12 kills apiece while McKenna Granato recorded 11 kills in the match on Saturday night at the Stan Sheriff Center.  
 
Burns and Liva—both of UH's starting middle hitters—had only one error each. Burns hit for .478 with 12 kills, one error in 23 attacks. Burns also led UH with three blocks. For the second time this season, Liva hit for an even .500 with 12 kills, one error in 22 swings. She was in on two blocks for the 'Bows.
 
For Castillo, it was the seventh time this season putting down double-digit kills. Castillo hit .233 with five errors in 30 attempts. She also added five digs and a block.
 
Granato caught fire late in the match, putting down nine of her 11 kills in the last two sets (four in Set 3, five in Set 4). Granato recorded her eighth double-double of the season with 12 digs to go with her 11 kills. She also issued a pair of service aces plus one block.
 
Norene Iosia ended one dig shy of yet another double-double. Her stat line on Saturday night had seven kills, 20 assists, nine digs, one service ace and one block. Faith Ma'afala dished out a match-high 29 assists with eight digs.
 
Tita Akiu posted her 16^th double-digit dig match of the season with five assists and one dig-kill off a serve that sailed just over the net and landed in front of a Matador defender that gave UH a 23-19 lead in Set 4.
 
Set 1 started with scoring runs by both teams. Hawai'i started the first set on a 4-to-1 run, but the Matadors came right back to leapfrom the 'Bows at 5-4. UH then rallied behind the serving of Akiu to go on a 5-to-0 run to retake the lead at 9-5. Hawai'i continued to pull away and took Set 1, 25-18.
 
The Matadors came right back to tie the match at 1-1. CSUN jumped out to a 7-4 lead and never looked back as they coasted to a 25-17 win in Set 2.
 
CSUN took a 1-0 lead in Set 3, but after that, Hawai'i raced out to a 5-1 lead behind the serving of Granato. UH held on the lead the rest of the way, but CSUN tried to rally, on a 4-ro-0 run to trail by just two points at 19-17. But the two teams had sideouts the rest of the way as the 'Bows took Set 3, 25-20.
 
Hawai'i led from wire-to-wire in Set 4, slowly pulling away from CSUN leading by as much as nine points at 19-10 in the middle of a three-point run with Iosia serving. The Matadors scored in little bunches and closed to within four three different times, but the 'Bows held CSUN off to win the set and the match, 25-20.
 
CSUN's Aeryn Owens had a match-high 13 kills and Kristey Markle had a match-high 20 digs. Brianna Johnson posted a match-high seven blocks as the Matadors out-blocked UH, 9.0-to-5.0.
 
Hawai'i returns to Southern California this coming week to open the second half of the conference season on the road. UH will take on UC Riverside on Friday, October 19 and then Cal State Fullerton on Saturday, October 20. Both matches are slated to start at 4:00 p.m. HT.