HONOLULU—The University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team (17-8, 13-2 Big West) swept UC Irvine, 25-19, 27-15, 25-16 on Thursday night at the Stan Sheriff Center. Senior Casey Castillo put down a season-high and match-high 14 kills to lead all players.
 
The seniors all came out firing. Castillo led the way, hitting a match-high .323 (14-4-41) for the match. She also was in on a pair of blocks and had one dig in the match. It was her eighth double-digit kill match of the season.
 
Senior Tita Akiu led a trio of Rainbow Wahine who tallied double-digits in digs in the match. She recorded a team-high 15 digs and hit the 400 dig mark for her UH career. She ended the night with 413 digs as a Rainbow Wahine. She now has 24 double-digit dig matches out of UH's 25 matches played.
 
Senior middle hitter Sarah Liva led all players with four blocks—including two solo. She added five kills as well.
 
Norene Iosia recorded her 14th double-double of the season and finished two kills shy of her fifth triple-double of the year with 17 assists and 10 digs. She was solid across the board, hitting .312 (8-3-16) with eight kills, two service aces and two blocks, while senior McKenna Granato finished the match one kill shy of a double-double with nine kills, 12 digs plus a block. Senior Faith Ma'afala dished out a team-high 19 assists and had a match-high three service aces plus eight digs.
 
UH and UCI were tied early in Set 1 at 1-1, but after that, Hawai'i jumped out to an early 7-2 lead, with three-straight points coming off Iosia's serve. But UCI kept chipping away and closed to within one point twice at 9-8 and 16-15. But UH never trailed in the 'Bows methodically pulled away. Castillo ended the frame with a solo block to take Set 1, 25-19.
 
The second set was a much closer affair. UC Irvine led very early in the set, but UH would answer the call each time. In the middle of the set, UH led by one point, 12-11. Hawai'i went on a 5-to-1 run to go up 17-12. The Anteaters however closed strong down the stretch, scoring four out of five points to tie the score at 24-24. But Hawai'i would later win the final two points on a Granato kill followed by an Anteater attack error that gave UH a 27-25 Set 2 win. UH took a 2-0 lead.
 
The Anteaters led early in Set 3. UCI was leading 8-6 when UH went on a 9-to-1 run with four points coming off Ma'afala's serving and another three on Granato's. The Rainbow Wahine then coasted to a 25-16 win in Set 3 to seal the sweep.
 
UC Irvine was led by Abby Marjama who had 10 kills. Haley DeSales recorded a match-high 16 digs while seeral players had two blocks each.
 
Hawai'i who improved to 40-0 all-time against the Anteaters, out-hit their opponents, .246-to-.098 and in kills, 46-to-33. UH also out-blocked UCI, 8.0-tp-5.0 and had the edge in digs, 56-to-53.
 
Prior to the match, Hawai'i recognized McKenna Granato for reaching the 1,000 career kill mark on the road. UH also observed a moment of silence in honor of former Rainbow Wahine Cecilia (Goods) Fernandez, who recently lost her battle with cancer. UC Irvine senior Idara Akpakpa sang a wonderful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner in her final Big West game of her career.
 
It will be another quick turnaround for the 'Bows as Hawai'i will take on UC Davis on Saturday, Nov. 16. It will be Senior Night for seven Rainbow Wahine—Natasha Burns (graduating fourth year junior), Tita Akiu, Casey Castillo, Angel Gaskin, McKenna Granato, Sarah Liva and Faith Ma'afala. It will also be a "Whiteout" and fans are encouraged to wear white for UH's final home match of the season.