HONOLULU—The University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team fell in its home opener to Kansas State, 3-0 (25-21, 29-27, 25-20) on Saturday night at the Stan Sheriff Center. Both Hawai'i and K-State opened their seasons a day late and to a closed arena due to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Lane.
 
The Rainbow Wahine were led by senior outside hitter McKenna Granato who recorded her first double-double of the year with 14 kills and 11 digs. Fellow senior outside hitter Casey Castillo added 11 kills while junior Norene Iosia posted a career-high eight kills with UH playing in a modified 6-2 offense. Senior transfer libero Tita Akiu racked up a match-high 15 digs in her UH debut and senior transfer opposite Angel Gaskin logged four blocks in her first game with the 'Bows. Senior Faith Ma'afala dished out a career-high 30 assists in the loss.
 
In the first set, Kansas State jumped out to an early 6-3 lead and held the lead until UH was finally able to catch and knot the set score at 13-13. The 'Bows would tie K-State three more times before the Wildcats  pulled away, scoring the last three points to take the first set, 25-21.
 
The second set saw was much tighter with 14 ties in all. Both team went on early runs. UH started out hot, jumping out to a 6-2 lead. But the Wildcats battled right back and scored the next seven-straight point to take a 9-6 lead. Hawai'i then scored five points to go back in front 11-9, highlighted by four straight kills by Granato with Ma'afala setting her up. But UH could never put distance between them and K-State and with the score tied at 27-27, KSU stole the second set on a pair of UH miscues--a service error followed by a hitting error to end the set at 29-27.
 
After UH tied the third set at 15-15 on a Sarah Liva kill, K-State went on a 7-to-1 run from which the 'Bows could not recover from. Hawai'i scored three points late to come within four points, but the Wildcats completed the sweep, 25-20.
 
Kansas State was led by Kylee Zumach who put down 19 kills and put up two blocks. Alyssa Schultejans added 11 kills.
 
The loss marked UH's third-straight home-opening loss. The last time the 'Bows were swept in their home-opener was in 2008 to Penn State, 21-25, 19-25, 19-25.
 
Hawai'i and Kansas State will square off again on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center.