LONG BEACH, Calif.—The University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team (7-5, 4-0 Big West) defeated Long Beach State (6-6, 1-3 Big West) on the road in four sets, 25-20, 25-21, 15-25, 25-19 on Saturday night at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Calif.. The Rainbow Wahine bounced back after dropping their first set in conference play to win the fourth frame to remain undefeated in the Big West. It marked UH's 10^th-straight victory over longtime rival Long Beach State dating back to 2016.
 
For the third-straight match three UH hitters—Riley Wagoner, Amber Igiede, & Caylen Alexander—reached double-double kills. Junior Riley Wagoner led the way putting down a match-high 16 kills—the final four of which were the final four UH points to win the match. She finished two dig shy of a double-double with eight digs.  It marked her eighth 10+ kill match of the season.
 
Rookie outside hitter Alexander came through with 13 kills for her seventh double-digit kill match as a Rainbow Wahine. She came out of the gates on fire, pounding six kills in the first set in 10 errorless swings. Junior middle blocker Amber Igiede posted her 11^th double-digit kill match of the season with 10 kills to go with a team-high three blocks with three digs and two assists.
 
Sophomore setter Kate Lang recorded her fourth double-double of the season and 16^th overall as she dished out 36 assists with a team-high 13 digs. She had UH's offense rolling over a .300 hitting percentage through the first two sets, but in the third, UH had only five kills in the frame for a -.071 hitting percentage.
 
Fellow sophomore Tayli Ikenaga tallied her 10^th double-digit dig match of the year and finished the match recording her 500^th career dig.
 
After coming in as a serving/defensive specialist for majority of the first three sets, junior Kendra Ham stayed in all the way around the rotation from the end of the third set. She put down a career-highs of four kills and two blocks to spark Hawai'i. Also making an impact was senior setter Mylana Byrd who came in off the bench in at the end of the match and picked up three assists, a dig and a key block with Tiffany Westerberg that gave UH an 18-15 lead which forced a LBSU timeout.
 
Hawai'i took a five point lead early at 11-6, but the Beach would rally right back on a five-point scoring run to tie the score at 11-11. After trading a few sideouts, UH went on a 5-to-1 run that for an 18-14 lead that the Beach would not recover from. Although the set was tied five times, UH never lost the lead in the frame as the 'Bows captured the first set, 25-20.
 
Despite committing 11 errors in the second set (six serving and five hitting errors), Hawai'i prevailed and held off the Beach to go up 2-0 with a 25-21 Set 2 win. After several sideouts to start with, Hawai'i would finally be catch the Beach at 9-9 and was then take their first lead at 11-10. The 'Bows would go on a mini run, scoring three-straight points for a little breathing room to lead 15-12 going into the media timeout. The Beach would not be able to retake the lead from that point as the 'Bows held off Long Beach State to win Set 2, 25-21.
 
It was all BEACH in the third. LBSU started off with five-straight for a 5-1 lead and never looked back leading by as many as 10 as UH was befuddled by the Beach. LBSU cruised to take Set 3, 25-15 thus snapped UH's 13-straight set win streak dating back to the second match vs. USC (9/10/22).
 
The fourth set, was a battle between the longtime rivals with the two teams tying 11 times with seven lead changes—the last time coming with UH leap-frogging past the Beach at 15-14. The Rainbow Wahine slowly pulled away with Wagoner scoring UH's final four points with four of her 16 kills to put the match away. With the win, Hawai'i snapped the Beach's six match home win streak dating back to last year's loss to UH which was also in four sets.
 
Jaylen Jordan's 14 kills led LBSU's offense as Dylan Dla Cruz had a match-high 15 digs and Kameron Bacon had a match-high six blocks.
 
Overall UH had a 51-to-49 edge in kills and a 60-to-51 advantage in digs. But the Beach out-blocked the 'Bows 10.0-to-6.0 and 2-to-1 lead in service aces. Both teams had 46 assists apiece.
 
Next up, Hawai'i will return home to continue Big West play against UC Irvine on Friday, October 7 and UC San Diego on Saturday, October 8^th. Both matches are slated to start at 7:00 p.m..