HONOLULU—In a battle between two of the top Big West teams, the University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team (12-6, 5-2 Big West) rallied to force a fifth set on the road, but came up just short at UC Santa Barbara, 22-25, 25-19, 21-25, 25-21, 15-9. In the loss, four Rainbow Wahine put down at least 13 kills apiece and four scooped up at least 15 digs each on Friday night at The Thunderdome.
 
Pin-hitter Paula Guersching led the UH offense with a UH career-high 16 kills while hitting a team-best .366 (16-1-41). She added three digs, two service aces and two blocks.
 
Both Riley Wagoner and Kate Lang recorded double-doubles. Wagoner put down 13 kills with a season-high 16 digs and added two service aces and two blocks. Lang dished out a match-high 43 assists and scooped up a career-high 22 digs. She is just the second Rainbow Wahine this season to record over 20 digs.
 
Amber Igiede buried 15 kills with a team-high seven blocks, while Kendra Ham had a season-high 15 digs with two blocks.
 
In Set 1, UH led early by as many as three, but after UH was up 9-7, the Gauchos went on a 6-0 run to leap ahead 13-9. A 7-to-2 Hawai'i run erased their deficit as they tied and took the lead at 19-18. But, after  both teams traded blows with four ties and three lead changes. But it was the Gauchos that pull away, scoring the final four-straight points to hold off Hawai'i, 25-22.
 
Hawai'i's early four-point scoring run, put UH ahead, 6-3 to start Set 2. UH did not look back, extending their lead to as many as six. UH would take Set 2, 25-19 to even the match at a set apiece.
 
The Gauchos jumped out to a quick 9-3 lead via after an 8-to-1 run. Hawai'i would come close to tying it at 10-11, but the Gauchos slowly built a four-point lead at 18-14. Hawai'i kept fighting, scoring four-straight, to knot the score at 18-18 on one of Guersching kills. But UC Santa Barbara would again score the final four points to take Set 3, 25-21 for a 2-1 match lead.
 
The Gauchos held off Hawai'i for the first half of Set 4, but after six ties, UH was finally able to take their first lead since Set 2 right before the media timeout at 14-13. UCSB responded scoring four-consecutive points to re-take the lead at 17-15. Back-to-back Wagoner kills, a solo block by Igiede and a UCSB hitting error propelled UH to a two point lead, 19-17. This time it was UH who went on a late 4-to-0 run for a 24-20 lead. Hawai'i tied the match at 2-2 after winning Set 4, 25-21.
 
In the fifth set, UCSB took a quick 4-1 lead, but UH would trail by just one at 6-7. The Gauchos responded by taking four of the next five points to extend their lead to 11-7. A late Hawai'i rally, closed the gap as UH staved off three match points ant thought they had tied it at 14-14 before a UCSB challenge overturned a call to end the match with UCSB winning the fifth set, 15-13.
 
UH led UCSB in kills (64-to-60), digs (85-to-80) and assists (58-to-53), but it was not enough to overcome 25 hitting errors and nine serving errors.
 
Earlier in the fifth set, UH had issued a challenge. But the review system went down and was inoperable, so instead of the score possibly being tied at 4-4, UCSB held a 5-3 lead.
 
The Gauchos was led by Michelle Ohwobete's 18 kills. Libero Macall Peed had a match-high 29 digs and Andi Kreiling was in on a match-high nine blocks.
 
Hawai'i has a quick turnaround as they head to San Luis Obispo to take on Cal Poly on Saturday, Oct. 14 at 4:00 p.m. HT.