6HONOLULU—The 18th-ranked and 12th-seeded University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team (25-3, 14-2 Big West) defeated Northern Colorado in four sets, 26-24, 24-26, 25-8, 25-15 to open the NCAA Championships in Honolulu for the first time since 2013. Hawai'i advances to the NCAA Second Round for the first time since 2016 and for the first time under third-year head coach Robyn Ah Mow. Senior outside hitter McKenna Ross tied her career-high, leading UH with 14 kills. Junior middle blocker Skyler Williams and senior setter/outside hitter Norene Iosia recorded match-highs of six blocks each with freshman middle Amber Igiede adding five blocks on Friday night at the Stan Sheriff Center in front of a "Whiteout" crowd of 7,818. .
 
For the 18th time this season and 62nd time for her career, Iosia recorded a double-double with 25 assists and 13 digs to go with three kills. Iosia not only led the team with Williams in blocks but also had a match-high four service aces. Iosia continues to climb the record books as well. She is now tied for No. 2 in career service aces with 139 and she moved past Suzanne Eagye and Teee Williams into No. 8 in career digs with 1,150 career digs.

Ross  hit .250 overall with 14 kills and five errors in 26 swings. After hitting just five kills and hitting .125 for the first two sets, Ross caught fire racking up six kills in the third set alone and three more in the fourth. It marked the fifth time in the last seven matches that Ross has notched double-digit kills. She also had six digs, three blocks, an assist and a service ace to fill her stat line.
 
Williams was a perfect 9-for-9 in kills before ending her match with an .818 hitting percentage, going 9-for-11 with no errors in the match.
  
Making her return to the court for the first time since Sept. 12 was junior hitter Jolie Rasmussen. After going down to start the third week of the season against West Virginia, Rasmussen missed the next 20 matches before coming in off the bench in the third set of tonight's game. She finished her first match back with four kills and one dig.
 
Junior libero Rika Okino led Hawai'i with 16 digs in the match. It marked her seventh double-dig match in the last eight matches and 11th of the season. She also added a pair of aces and four assists on the night.
 
Junior hitter Brooke Van Sickle ended just one kill shy of recording a double-double with nine kills and 15 digs.

Senior setter Bailey Choy was key in UH's dominant performance in the third set with a 10-point serving run. Her run left UH with a 14-4 lead and forced UNC to burn both of their timeouts as they tried to get out of their rotation they were stuck in. Overall, Choy finished the match with 19 assists, six digs, and two service aces.
 
The Manoa Roofing Company was on display, out-blocking the Bears, 13.0-to-3.0. It is the 16th time in 28 matches this season, that UH tallied double-digit team blocks. Hawai'i out-hit UNC, .315-to-.145 and had 54 kills to their 46.
 
The first set was a battle between the two teams combiningd for 15 ties and eight lead changes. Hawai'i was able to slip past the Bears for the 26-24 win to go up 1-0. Freshman opposite Hanna Hellvig came through with five kills while Van Sickle added four in the first frame. Igiede led all players with four blocks to set the tone at the net.
 
In the second set, UH once again found themselves trailing at the beginning of the match. Northern Colorado jumped out to an 8-4. But with senior setter Bailey Choy serving, UH rallied to score four-straight points to tie things up at 8-8. After UH lost a challenge UNC went back up, 10-8. Later, UH went on a 4-to-0 run to take a 15-13 lead. But the 'Bows could not shake off the Bears. This time, it was Northern Colorado who scored the final two points to capture Set 2, 26-24 to tie the match at 1-1. The second set had 13 ties and seven lead changes.
 
The third set, however, was all UH. The Rainbow Wahine led from wire-to-wire and had its most lopsided set win of the season, winning 25-8. It was the largest margin of victory in a set since last year's Oct. 20 match at Cal State Fullerton when UH took Set 1, 25-3. Ross' six kills in the set led UH's offensive attack which hit .463 in Set 3 with the team combining for 13 kills with just one error in 26 swings.
 
Hawai'i closed out the match winning Set 4 cruising to a 25-15 win to seal the win.
 
Northern Colorado was led by Taylor Muff who racked up a match-high 19 kills. Daisy Schultz dished out a match-high 37 assists and Taylor Els had a match-high 22 digs.
 
The Rainbow Wahine will take on No. 20 San Diego (24-5, 17-1 West Coast) who defeated No. 23 Washington State in four sets. The NCAA Second Round match-up will be on Saturday, Dec. 7 at 7:00 p.m.