COLLEGE STATION, Texas—The University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team opened the 2022 season with a five set loss at Texas A&M, 25-18, 17-25, 23-25, 25-17, 11-15 on Friday morning at the Reed Center in College Station, Texas. Hawai'i got off to a hot start out-hitting the Aggies, .355-to-.194 in the first set, but could not maintain their momentum as unforced errors plagued UH in the marathon match.
 
On offense, five Rainbow Wahine notched 10+ kills each, led by junior outside hitter Riley Wagoner who put down a team- and career-high 21 kills hitting a lofty .364 (21-5-44). It was just her second 20+ kill match of her career. Junior Tiffany Westerberg got the start at middle and added a career-high 12 kills to go with three blocks while junior pin-hitter Braelyn Akana had 10 kills and was in on three blocks. Making some noise in her collegiate debut was  freshman pin hitter Caylen Alexander who downed 10 kills. Although Amber Igiede did not record a kill until midway through the second set, she finished with 13 kills and hit a team-best .379. But her streak of registering at leasd one block in every match played at UH was snapped at 58.
 
Kate Lang began her sophomore campaign with her 13th career double-double (55 assists (match-high)/11 digs). Lang was one of four 'Bows to tally 10+ digs as libero Tayli Ikenaga led UH with 17. Junior transfer Talia Edmonds made her Rainbow Wahine debut with 13 digs off the bench while outside hitter Kendra Ham saw time in the back row and added 12 digs while recording her first career kill for UH.
 
The Rainbow Wahine jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead to start the match and led by as many as seven points twice en route to capturing the first set, 25-18. UH hit .355 and Wagoner led UH out of the gate with six kills as  Westerberg added four.
 
In the second set, hitting errors started to accumulate, hitting .143 (15-8-49) while Texas A&M flipped the script from the first set to hit .312 (12-2-32) in the second. Early on, the Aggies went on an early 5-to-0 run to lead 7-3. UH was unable to recover and TAMU's lead ballooned to eight points to lead 20-12. The Aggies were serving set point at 24-15 when the 'Bows rallied late, scoring four-straight points to close their deficit to five at 24-19. But after TAMU timeout, the home team took Set 2, 25-19.
 
UH's Westerberg and Akana recorded UH's first block of the match to start the third set which was more closely contested than the previous first two sets with 11 ties in the frame. UH put up three straight points to take a 17-16 lead. The teams traded several side outs before the Aggies were able to scratched out a 25-22 Set 3 win to take a 2-1 lead. In Sets 2 and 3, UH struggled to hit a combined .197 (29-13-81).
 
In Set 4, UH fought back to stay alive. UH built a six point advantage in part to an 8-to-2 run for a 17-11 lead. As a team in the fourth, UH hit .447 with 18 kills on just one error in 38 attacks. The Aggies rallied late but the 'Bows cruised to force a fifth set after taking Set 4, 25-17.
 
Hawai'i was looking to take their momentum into the deciding set. UH went up early 2-0 and thought they were leading 3-0, but a TAMU challenge overturned the play to give a kill to Elena Karakasi to make the score 2-1. The score was tied at 6-6 before Texas A&M reeled off six points that put the match out of reach for UH. The 'Bows staved off two match points, but succumbed 15-11 in the final frame.
 
For the match, it marked the first time since UH had five players with double-digit kills since the first round of the 2015 NCAA tournament vs. TCU, ironically played at Texas A&M. In that match Nikki Taylor (21), Olivia Magill (19), Kalei Greeley (16), Tai Manu-Olevao (14) and Emily Maglio (13) all contributed greatly in the five-set win over the Horned Frogs. Four Rainbow Wahine also finished today's match with 10+ digs which was the first time since CSUN (11/26/21) last season to accomplish the feat.
 
In the first and fourth sets which Hawai'i won, UH had just five hitting errors, but had 15 hitting errors in Sets 2, 3, and 5 combined.UH served up one ace but had 15 service errors for the match. Even with all the hitting errors, UH out-hit TAMU, .289-to-.258 and had 70 kills to the Aggies' 58. Texas A&M finished with seven service aces and out-blocked Hawai'i, 6.0-to-4.0. UH had no blocks through the first two sets.

Texas A&M's Caroline Meuth led all players with 23 kills and hit .309. Lauren Hogen had a match-high 21 digs and Madison Bowser and Karakasi had a match-high four blocks apiece.

Up next, the Rainbow Wahine take on No. 6 Pitt on Saturday, Aug.  27 at 11:00 a.m. HT on Day 2 of the Texas A&M Invitational.