HONOLULU—The No. 21 University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team (18-3, 8-2 Big West) returns home to host a pair of pivotal conference matches against the two league leaders. Hawai'i will first take on UC Santa Barbara (18-2, 8-1 Big West) on Friday, Nov. 1 at 7:00 p.m. On Sunday, the Rainbow Wahine will battle Cal Poly (16-6. 9-1 Big West) at 5:00 p.m. Both matches will be played in the Stan Sheriff Center. On Sunday, fans are encouraged to wear their favorite "Black" U.H. logo apparel.  There will be an autograph session with the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team following Sunday's match at Gate B.
 
MATCH #22
TEAMS: No. 21 Hawai'i (18-3, 8-2 Big West) vs. Santa Barbara (18-2, 8-1 Big West)
DATE: Friday, Nov. 1, 2019
TIME: 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Stan Sheriff Center (10,300) - Honolulu, O'ahu
PROMOTIONS: Hawaiian Telcom is the sponsor of Friday's match and will distribute towels to the first 1,000 fans.  Great prizes will be awarded during the promotional contest at intermission. Sign up for your chance to win at the sports marketing table at Gate A.
TELEVISION: Spectrum Sports will televise both of UH's matches this week with Kanoa Leahey handling the play-by-play and Lisa Strand Ma'a doing the color commentary. The pregame/post-game show will feature Scott Robbs, Dave Shoji, and Ryan Kalei Tsuji. Fans in Hawai'i can watch on Spectrum channels 16 and 1016 (HD).
STREAMING VIDEO: BigWest.tv (Must be a Spectrum cable subscriber to stream in Hawai'i).
RADIO: ESPN Honolulu (1420 AM/92.7 FM). Josh Pacheco will host an hour-long pre-match show. Tiff Wells will handle the match play-by-play.
AUDIO STREAMING: ESPNHonolulu.com -or- the Sideline Hawaii app.
LIVE STATS: Live in game stats can be linked to at HawaiiAthletics.com women's volleyball schedule page
TICKETS: Tickets can be purchased at Stan Sheriff Center Box Office, online at ETicketHawaii.com, or by phone at (808) 944-2697 (BOWS).
SERIES HISTORY:  Hawai'i holds a 42-to-9 record over UC Santa Barbara. Earlier this season, Hawai'i swept the Gauchos in Santa Barbara (10/12/19), 25-20, 25-22, 25-19. Last year, UCSB came to Honolulu and swept UH 26-28, 22-25, 21-25 (10/27/18)
  
MATCH #23
TEAMS: No. 21 Hawai'i (18-3, 8-2 Big West) vs. Cal Poly (15-6, 8-1 Big West)
DATE: Sunday, Nov. 3, 2019
TIME: 5:00 p.m.
SITE: Stan Sheriff Center (10,300) - Honolulu, O'ahu
PROMOTIONS: First Hawaiian Bank is the sponsor of Sunday's match and will distribute buy one get one free spam musubi 7-11 coupons the first 1,000 fans.  Great prizes will be awarded during the promotional contest at halftime. Sign up for your chance to win at the sports marketing table at Gate A.  Fans are encouraged to wear their favorite "Black" U.H. apparel.  There will be an autograph session with the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team following Sunday's match at Gate B.
TELEVISION: Spectrum Sports will televise both of UH's matches this week with Kanoa Leahey handling the play-by-play and Chris McLachlin doing the color commentary. The pregame/post-game show will feature Scott Robbs, Lisa Strand Ma'a, and Ryan Kalei Tsuji. Fans in Hawai'i can watch on Spectrum channels 16 and 1016 (HD).
STREAMING VIDEO: BigWest.tv (Must be a Spectrum cable subscriber to stream in Hawai'i).
RADIO: ESPN Honolulu (1420 AM/92.7 FM). Josh Pacheco will host an hour-long pre-match show. Tiff Wells will handle the match play-by-play.
AUDIO STREAMING: ESPNHonolulu.com -or- the Sideline Hawaii app.
LIVE STATS: Live in game stats can be linked to at HawaiiAthletics.com women's volleyball schedule page
TICKETS: Tickets can be purchased at Stan Sheriff Center Box Office, online at ETicketHawaii.com, or by phone at (808) 944-2697 (BOWS).
SERIES HISTORY:  Hawai'i holds a 40-to-8 record over the Mustangs. Earlier this season, Cal Poly swept the Rainbow Wahine in San Luis Obispo, 22-25, 24-26, 15-25.

GAME NOTES:

•Last week...The Rainbow Wahine swept both of their matches on the road last week. The 'Bows defeated Cal State Fullerton, 25-12, 25-19, 25-18 and UC Irvine, 27-25, 25-17, 25-21. In the first match, senior setter/outside hitter Norene Iosia flirted with a quadruple-double with 14 assists, 12 digs (team-high), eigth kills and a career-high eight blocks plus one service ace. Freshman Hanna Hellvig led UH with 12 kills while junior middle blocker Skyler Williams was tied with Iosia with a team-high eight blocks. At UC Irvine, Hawai'i scored in multiple ways notching a season-high 12 service aces, 13 blocks, and 35 kills while capitalizing on UCI's 23 hitting errors, and six serving errors. Leading UH was Williams who had a team-high nine kills and seven blocks. Junior libero Rika Okino led UH posting a season-high 12 digs while Iosia tallied her 13th double-double of the season and 57th of her career with 14 assists and 10 digs.

•Iosia earns first BWC Defensive Player of the Week Award - The undeniable leader of the Rainbow Wahine has been senior hitter Norene Iosia. For the last four weeks, Iosia has resumed her role from last year as setter/outside hitter. She continues to climb the UH career record books. This past week, she rose up the ranks to No. 5 in service aces with 121 career aces and now trails current associate head coach Angelica Ljungqvist who is No. 4 on the list with 133 service aces. Ljungqvist also holds the career record for single-season service aces prior to rally scoring with 58 in 123 sets in her senior season, 1996. Iosia also rose to No. 12 with 1,070 career digs and remains at No. 9 in career assists with 2,933. She needs just 67 assists to reach the 3,000 assist milestone.
    This past week, Iosia earned her first Big West Defensive Player of the Week award after helping the Rainbow Wahine with 22 digs and 12 blocks--including a career-high eight blocks against Cal State Fullerton. The Torrance, Calif. native has recorded 13 double-doubles on the season, giving her a total of 57 in her career. She has five career triple-doubles and was only two kills and two blocks away from capturing a quadruple-double against Cal State Fullerton. Against the Anteaters, Iosia posted 14 assists, 10 digs, four blocks, two service aces and a kill. Iosia has posted three-straight double-doubles and is one of only three UH players to play all 82 sets this season (Bailey Choy and Hanna Hellvig). In her senior season Iosia is doing everything she can to help the Rainbow Wahine. She leads UH with 430 assists, 30 service aces and 226 digs. She also has recorded 36 kills and 17 blocks in seven matches.

•Manoa Roofing Company - After starting the year out-blocking their first 10 opponents, the 'Bows were outblocked in five of the next seven matches. But the 'Bows have bounced back to outblock their opponents in the last four matches 45.5-to-21.5. Currently UH is ranked at No. 21 in blocks per set (2.68) and NO. 16 in total blocks (219.5). UH has outblocked their opponents this season, 219.5-to-148.0. It is the most blocks for UH since the 2015 season when UH led the NCAA for much of that year in blocks. Through 21 games, the 2015 squad had 235.5 total blocks, This season, UH has recorded double-digits in blocks 16 times this season--including the last four-straight matches.

•Newcomers Making Huge Impact - The nine newcomers (including five freshmen) have made an immediate impact. Through 21 matches, the nine newcomers account for 824 of UH's 1092 kills (75%), 739 of 1,193 digs (62%), and 158.5 of UH's 219.5 total blocks (72%). The freshmen alone account for 569 kills (52%), 369 digs (31%), and a whopping 127.5 total blocks (58%).

•When junior outside hitter Jolie Rasmussen went down in Week 3 vs. West Virginia, it was the rookie from Lidongo, Stockholm, Sweden who stepped up to shoulder the offensive load for UH. Outside hitter Hanna Hellvig tied Norene Iosia and former Rainbow Wahine Kalei Greeley with her third Big West Freshman of the Week award last week.
Overall, she leads UH with 252 kills (over 100 more kills than her closest teammate, fellow freshman Amber Igede who has 148 kills). Hellvig has led UH in kills in nine of the last 13 matches. She has posted double-figure kills in 16 matches this season--including 12 times in the last 14 matches. Overall, Hellvig is averaging a team-high 3.07 kills per set (amongst active players) and is second on the team with 172 digs and third on the team with 60 total blocks.

•Sky's the limit - Junior middle blocker Skyler Williams continues to lead the Big West in hitting percentage (.407). She has recorded 139 kills with just 32 errors in 263 attacks. Williams is also ranked at No. 23 in the NCAA in hitting percentage. She is fourth in the league averaging 1.13 blocks per set. Overall, Williams is second on the team with 79 total blocks (7 solo).
Earlier this year, Williams helped lead UH to three wins to capture the 2019 Heineken Rainbow Wahine Invitational title in Week 2 and for her efforts, earned her first career tournament Most Valuable Player Award and her first Big West Defensive Player of the Week Award (Sept. 9). She led UH with 12 blocks while pounding 32 kills and tallying a .481 hitting percentage against Army, Sacramento State, and Denver.

•Freshman middle blocker Amber Igiede has definitely made an impact as a rookie. She is second in the Big West in both hitting percentage (.379) and blocks (1.25 blocks per set). Overall, she leads UH with 90 total blocks (12 solo) and is second on the team with 148 kills. In UH's win over Cal State Fullerton, Igiede recorded a career-high 10 blocks (two solo). The last time UH had a player record with 10+ blocks was in 2017 when Emily Maglio had three-straight matches with 10 blocks during the conference season.

•Senior transfer, setter Bailey Choy and Norene Iosia have combined their efforts in two different variations of UH's 6-2 offense to issue out 852 assists combined. Choy has dished out 422 assists and is third on the team with 162 digs and is second with 19 service aces. Choy has recorded six double-doubles--the last coming against Cal State Fullerton with 28 assists and 16 digs. This past week at UC Irvine Choy served up a career-high four service aces.

•Junior libero Rika Okino has seen her role expand over this season. To start the season, Okino was used only when UH needed to steady out its passing in its libero-less, 6-2 offense which feature five attackers on the court at all times. But since Rasmussen's injury, Okino's playing time has increased. This season she has tallied four matches with double-digit digs--including a season-high 12 digs in UH's most recent contest at UC Irvine.
Okino, who is a fourth-year junior (she redshirted her true freshman year) will graduate this year with a degree in civil engineering and will forego her last season of athletic eligibility. She will be joining the four other seniors on Senior Night this year.