ISLA VISTA, Calif.—The University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team (21-6, 18-1 Big West) came from behind to win its third-straight and 11th overall Big West title with a five set win at UC Santa Barbara (20-10, 16-4 BW), 23-25, 25-20, 26-28, 25-18, 15-11. With the win, Hawai'i receives The Big West's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The win was a total team effort. Four Rainbow Wahine put down double-digit kills led by Amber Igiede and Riley Wagoner who had 18 apiece, while three UH players had 10+ digs on Friday night at The Thunderdome in Isla Vista, Calif.
 
The win punched UH's ticket to their 29th consecutive and 40th overall NCAA tournament. It marks Hawai'i's 26th overall conference title won. The win extended UH's season-long win streak to 11 while snapping UCSB's home streak dating back to 2022 at 13.
 
Igiede recorded double-digit kills for the 25^th time in UH's 27 matches in 2022. She hit .417 (18-3-36) for her 16th match hitting over .400 this season. She tied UCSB's Nia Correal with a match-high five blocks.
 
Wagoner had a banner night, tallying her seventh double-double with 18 kills while tying her career-high with 17 digs and was in on two blocks. Wagoner now has 18 matches with 10+ kills and 13 with double-figure digs this season.
 
Setter Kate Lang also had a career-high night, posting her eight double-double tying her season high with 55 assists while tying her career-high with 17 digs. Lang added a career-best six kills  while adding two blocks and two service aces to fill her stat line for the match.
 
After getting eight kills through the first two sets, Caylen Alexander struggled a little in Set 3 getting just one kill while hitting -286 in the third. She came back on fire, pounding five kills in Set 4 alone plus another two in Set 5. She finished the night with 16 kills to go with a pair of aces—bringing her team-leading season total to 33. Alexander now has recorded 10+ kills in 14 matches in her rookie season.
 
Braelyn Akana kept things rolling with 10 kills for her fifth double-digit kill match and her 11th match hitting over .300. She contributed four digs, two blocks and an assist. Tayli Ikenaga scooped up 13 digs for her 16th 10+ dig match this year.
 
The Gauchos got off to a hot start, jumping out to a quick 5-1 lead and then continued to lead by four at 8-4. Hawai'i rallied to score four-straight to tied the score at 8-8 on an Igiede ace that tickled the tape and fell in. Hawai'i would knot the score three more times before UH was able to see-saw into the lead at 12-11. The two teams would then trade 11 sideouts. UH would score three-straight to go up, 19-16. After a Gaucho timeout, UCSB scored nine of the last 13 points to take Set 1, 25-23. UCSB out-hit UH .441-to-.286 in hitting percentage and 18-to-16 in kills while out digging the 'Bows 19-to-11 and out-blocking UH 3.00-to-0.00. In all, there were 13 ties and two lead changes. Akana and Alexander paced UH with four kills apiece in the set.
 
Set 2 saw momentum shift from side to side. Hawai'i scored five-straight early with four coming on the serve of Wagoner to give UH an early 8-4 lead. UCSB erased their deficit scoring six of seven point to leapfrogged over UH for a 10-9 lead. Later, a 5-to-0 run with Ham serving gave UH a five point advantage at 19-14. UCSB would go on a 5-to-2 run to trail UH by just two at 21-19. But that would be as close as the Gauchos would get as the Rainbow Wahine scored four of the last five points to even the match at 1-1 with a 25-20Set 2 win.
 
UC Santa Barbara took control of Set 3 earlybuilding an eight-point lead at 13-5. From that point, UH went on a 5-to-0 run with Ikenaga serving to trail by two. Later, with Ham serving, a UCSB overpass was put down by Lang to finally catch UCSB at 22-22. Hawai'i would stave off a pair of UCSB set points, and then had a set point of their own at 26-25. But the Gauchos held off UH to win Set 3, 28-26 to take a 2-1 match lead.
 
Set 4 started with seven ties and six lead changes. Withthe score tied at 8-8 UH went on a 4-to-1 scoring run to go up, 10-8. Later, the 'Bows extended their lead to five at 19-14. After a UCSB timeout, Lang continued her serve, putting over a two-handed attack that fell in for a kill and followed that with a service ace to give UH a 21-14 lead. UH would go on to tie the match at 2-2 taking Set 4, 25-18.
 
The fifth set started with six ties and four lead changes, but 6-to-1 run gave Hawai'i a 12-8 lead from which the Gauchos could not recover from as UH won Set 5, 15-11.
 
Hawai'i is now 4-2 in five set matches—winning the last three five-setters in a row. For the match, Hawai'i overcame a slow start to out-high UC Santa Barbara, 76-to-67 in kills, .318-to-.284 in hitting percentage, 69-to-60 in assists, and 7-to-6 in service aces. On defense, UH out-dug UCSB, 71-to-62 but were out blocked, 9.0-to-7.0 by the Gauchos who came into the game as the No. 1 blocking team in The Big West.
 
Hawai'i did not have an answer to UCSB's opposites. The Gauchos had four players hit in double-figures as well, led by Tallulah Froley's 16. She hit .441 with just one error that came late in the fifth set on 34 swings. Mehana Ma'a had a team-high 33 assists while Macall Peed led all players with 20 digs.
 
As a team, Hawai'i hit for a combined .318 for its third straight and 12th time hitting over .300 for the match.
 
The Rainbow Wahine have a quick turnarourn as they travel wet to take on the CSUN Matadors on Saturday, Nov. 26 at 5:00 P.M. HT.

On Sunday, ESPNU will host the NCAA women's volleyball selection show at 2:30 P.M. HT.