HONOLULU--The University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team (17-6, 10-2 Big West) host a pair of pivotal matches this week starting with Cal Poly (15-10, 9-4 BW) on Friday, Nov. 3 followed by conference-leader UC Santa Barbara (22-3, 12-1 BW) on Saturday, Nov. 4. Both matches will start at 7:00 p.m. HT at the SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. The Rainbow Wahine will be honoring their past with the present team debuting their custom designed retro jerseys for both matches. Fans are encouraged to pack the Stan wear retro UH attire for the weekend. The Rainbow Wahine will host their final autograph session of the season immediately following their match vs. UCSB on Saturday night.
| MATCH #24 & 25 |
| Opponent | Date | Time |
Cal Poly (15-10, 9-4 Big West) - Friday, Nov. 3, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. HT
UC Santa Barbara (22-3, 12-1 Big West) - Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. HT |
| Location |
SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center (10,300) - Honolulu, O'ahu |
| Tickets |
ETicketHawaii.com |
| Promotions |
RETRO WEEKEND: The women's volleyball team will be wearing custom retro jerseys this weekend and fans are encouraged to wear their retro UH apparel for both nights.
FRIDAY
• Coca-Cola is the sponsor on Friday and will award great prizes during the match.
• Friday is ALZtogether Night to bring understanding and awareness to the college athletics community about Alzheimer's.
SATURDAY
• Hawaii Pacific Health is the sponsor on Saturday and will distribute 300 pink scrunchies and award a massage certificate. Fans, please visit the sports marketing table (near Gate A) to register for a chance to win.
• An AUTOGRAPH SESSION with the Rainbow Wahine will follow Saturday's match (Gate B). |
| Game Day Information |
SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center Game Day Information page |
| Game Day Rosters |
CLICK HERE (PDF) |
| Virtual Program |
CLICK HERE |
| Television |
Spectrum OC16 - Ch. 16 (SD) or Ch. 1016 (HD)
Scott Robbs (Play-by-Play), Chris McLachlin (Color); Jordan Helle, Lisa Strand, Ryan Kalei Tsuji (Pre/Post match) |
| Live Stream |
vs. Cal Poly - ESPN+ (Blacked out in Hawai'i)
vs. UC Santa Barbara - ESPN+ (Blacked out in Hawai'i) |
| Radio |
ESPN Honolulu | 1420 AM / 92.7 FM | Tiff Wells (play-by-play) |
| Live Audio Stream |
ESPNHonolulu.com | Sideline Hawaii App |
| Live Stats |
vs. Cal Poly
vs. UC Santa Barbara |
| Game Notes |
Hawai'i | Cal Poly | UC Santa Barbara |
| Social Media |
@HawaiiWVB  | #HawaiiWVB #GoBows | @HawaiiWVB  | Facebook  |
HAWAI'I RAINBOW WAHINE (17-6, 10-2 Big West)
Head Coach: Robyn Ah Mow (Seventh Season)
Record at UH: 125-42
Big West Record: 87-11
CAL POLY (15-10, 9-4 Big West)
Head Coach: Caroline Walters (Fourth Season)
Series record: UH leads, 45-9
Streak: UH won last two
Last meeting: UH bounced back after a grueling five-set loss at UCSB to defeat Cal Poly in four, 25-18, 22-25, 25-21, 25-16.
Amber Igiede powered the UH offense with a match-high 16 kills while
Paula Guersching and
Caylen Alexander both added 12 kills apiece. In her first start of the season, libero
Tayli Ikenaga came up with a team-high 12 digs and had a couple of key extended serving runs late in the third and fourth sets.
UC SANTA BARBARA (22-3, 12-1 Big West)
Head Coach: Matt Jones (First Setson
Series record: UH leads UH leads 45-12
Streak: UCSB won last one - the Gauchos have won three of the last five meetings vs. UH
Last meeting: Last month, the Gauchos held off Hawai'i in a five-set loss, 25-22, 19-25, 21-25, 25-21, 13-15. In the loss, four UH players recorded at least 13 kills, while four popped up at least 15 digs apiece, but it was not enough to overcome 34 unforced errors (25 HE/5 SE). Guersching put down a UH career-high 16 kills while Igiede added 15 and both
Kennedi Evans and
Riley Wagoner had 13 kills. Setter
Kate Lang notched another double-double with 43 assists and a career high 22 digs.
LAST TIME OUT...
- Last week, Hawai'i swept both of their road matches at CSUN (25-17, 25-19, 25-12) on Friday and at Cal State Bakersfield (25-16, 25-18, 25-19) to remain tied for second in the Big West with Long Beach State.
- At CSUN, UH's middle blockers provided the power, putting down a combined 20 kills with just one error for a combined .679 hitting percentage. Both Igiede and Evans posted 10 kills apiece--Evans went 10-1-15 for a career-high .600, while Igiede had 10 kills on 13 errorless swings to tally a season-high .769 hitting percentage. Lang had the offense clicking as UH hit .367 for the match while holding the Matadors to a .111 H%. The Rainbow Wahine finished the match in 78 minutes--tying it with UH's first match vs. CSUN in September for the quickest match of the season.
- At Cal State Bakersfield, Hawai'i's middles were the core of the win with Igiede recording a match-high 16 kills--seven coming in Set 3 alone--and Evans raising her hitting percentage to career-high .636 with seven kills, no errors in 11 attacks. Fourteen UH players saw action with nine recording at least one kill and nine coming up with at least one dig. UH's setters Lang and Jackie Matias combined to issue 38 assists. Matias and Kendra Ham entered the match in as double subs with Set 2 tied at 16-16 and the pair ignited a four-point run to give UH a 20-16 lead from which the Roadrunners could not come back from. Matias had a career-high 11 assists.
NEWS & NOTES
STAT NOTES ENTERING WEEK 11
- UH is riding a season-long five match win streak after sweeping CSUN and CSUB on the road last week
- Since hitting a combined .197 in UH's win at Cal Poly, the Rainbow Wahine have hit over .325 in their last four matches--all sweeps over their opponents
- Hawai'i's defense has held their opponents' hitting percentage to 200-or-below for the last 14-straight matches
- Hawai'i is 12-0 when hitting above .250 for the match and 5-6 when hitting below .250. On the flip-side, defensively UH has held their opponents' hitting percentages to under .200 for 15 matches--including the last 11-straight--and is 13-2 in those matches.
- As a team, UH leads the league with...
- 12.94 assists/set (NCAA-No. 15)
- 15.45 digs/set (NCAA-No. 63)
- 13.84 kill/set (NCAA-No. 19)
- 35.55 attack/set (NCAA-No. 72)
- Individually - UH players ranked No. 1 in the BW
LANG EARNS SIXTH BIG WEST SETTER OF THE WEEK AWARD OF 2023
- Junior Kate Lang was named the BW's Setter of the Week for the sixth time this season and ninth of her career
- This past week, Lang distributed 64 total assists to average 10.67 assists/set. She and Jackie Matias had the Hawai'i offense humming, hitting at a .345 clip while averaging 15.17 kills/set on UH's penultimate roadtrip.
- At CSUN, Lang issued 37 assists with one error in 67 attempts for a .552 assist percentage. She added seven digs plus a kill as the 'Bows hit a combined, .367 (44-11-90). UH closed out the sweep hitting .522 in the third set alone. Lang dished out 27 assists with a pair of service aces and three digs at Cal State Bakersfield to extend UH's win streak to a season-long five straight wins. Hawai'i hit .327 with nine different players notching at least one kill.
- Overall, Lang leads the league with a career-high 10.39 assists per set and 852 total assists.
- She leads UH with eight double-double--the most recent coming at UC Santa Barbara when she had 43 assists and a career-high 22 digs.
IGIEDE ON THE RISE
- Senior middle blocker Amber Igiede continues to lead the league in hitting percentage (.401), kills/set (3.79) and points/set (4.69)
- This past week, with her 16 kills at CSUN, Igiede rose up a rung on the UH career kill list, passing former UH All-American and 1990 BW Player of the Year, Karrie Trieschman to No. 14 with 1,247 total kills.
- Igiede is now six blocks away from becoming just the fourth player in UH history to record 1,000 kills and 500 blocks. The elite group of All-American middle blockers includes Angelica Ljungqvist (1,570 K/733 Blk); Suzanne Eagye (1,553 K/743 Blk), and Deitre Collins (1,385 K/500 Blk)
- She is just one of 16 Rainbow Wahine to ever reach 1,200 career kills.
- The all-around Igiede, has seven matches this year with at least a kill, a block, a dig, an assist, and a service ace--most recently at UC Davis in October)
- She is the only Rainbow Wahine to have recorded at least a kill, a dig and a block in all 23 of UH's matches thus far.
- For her career, she has put down at least one kill in all 112 career match and has been in on at least one block in 111 our of 112 career matches played.
- This past summer, Igiede trained with the nation's elite collegiate players. She was invited to train with the U.S. Women's National Team led by head coach Karch Kiraly.
- Earlier this season against USC (Sept. 2), Igiede became the 21st Rainbow Wahine to record 1,000 career kills. She was the first since McKenna Granato accomplished the feat in 2018. She also is No. 6 in career blocks with 483.
- Igiede is the reigning Big West Player of the Year and the senior has earned all-Big West first team honors three times. Last year, she was named to the AVCA All-America third team
THE STARTING SEVEN
- After a small shake up in the lineup, following the loss at UCSB last month, Hawai'i has started the same seven in the last five matches. Starting at outside hitter for the 'Bows are Guerschin and Wagoner and in the middle, Igiede and Evans has started all 23 matches thus far. At opposite, Caylen Alexander has got the starting not in the last five as has libero Tayli Ikenana who re-gained her starting role after UCSB this year.
HAKAS PLAYING FOR SOMETHING BIGGER
- These last few weeks have been full of emotion and anguish for freshman pin-hitter Tali Hakas. Hakas, who was born in Uruguay moved to Israel when she was 12 with her family, recently concluded her mandatory service in the Israeli army finishing her career as a sergeant. After UH's home win over Cal State Fullerton, Hakas started receiving messages from home regarding the recent Hamas attack. With her family still in Israel, and her two brothers currently serving in the Army and the Army reserves, her family and country have been in the forefront of her mind, but volleyball has been a safe refuge for her. She arrived in Hawai'i right before the start of two-a-days in August and made an instant impact. The high-energy Hakas started the first nine matches at opposite. For the season, she has 74 kills with 101 digs, 22.0 blocks and seven service aces in 50 sets played.
GUERSCHING FINDING GROOVE
- Junior transfer Paula Guersching was dinged up in fall two-a-days and was unable to play at her full potential early. But having started eight of the last nine matches she has emerged as an offense threat for the 'Bows.
- Since getting her first start for UH at UCSD, Guersching is second on the team with 84 kills. During that span, she is averaging 2.63 k/set while hitting at a .311 clip.
- At UCSB, she put down a UH career-high 16 kills with a .366 hit% (16-1-41). She followed that by posting 12 kills at Cal Poly.
- The 6-2, junior from Schwalbach am Taunus, Germany transferred to UH from Youngstown State this year after a prolific Penguin career. The 2022 Horizon Player of the Year dominated her first two collegiate seasons at YSU. In her final year as a Penguin, Guersching finished ranked in the top five in the NCAA, finishing third with 5.24 kill/set and 5.87 points/set; fifth with 12.84 attacks/set and 576 total kills; and sixth with 646.0 total points—all of which were YSU single-season records. The-native became the fastest player in YSU history to reach 1,000 career kills finishing her two seasons with 1,006 while becoming the first YSU player to earn AVCA All-America honorable mention honors.
EVANS SOLID IN THE MIDDLE
- Senior middle Kennedi Evans has been on a tear lately. Last week, Evans hit a combined .615 with 17 kills on one error in 26 attempts.
- In Big West matches, Evans is third on the team with 77 kills and is averaging 1.987 k/s. She is hitting .341 during the entire conference season.
- Last season, Evans saw limited playing time after transferring from Utah last season, while still recovering from an injury that curtailed her career at Utah.
- At both UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara, Evans put down a career-high (for both UH and Utah) 13 kills.
- Evans and Igiede are the only UH players to have been in on at least one block in every match this season.
IKENAGA EARNS LIBERO JERSEY BACK
- Junior Tayli Ikenaga earned her way back into the starting lineup at libero for the last five matches.
- She was the starting libero for her first two seasons with 56 starts .
- Ikenaga started the final four sets at UCSB where she came up with a season-high 17 digs. She got the starting nod in the following match at Cal Poly and scooped up a team-high 12 digs with three assists and two aces. She was targeted 20 times without a serve-receive error against the Mustangs.
- She had four-straight games with 10+ digs
DEALING ACES
- Pin-hitters Wagoner and Alexander lead UH with 18 service aces each
- Igiede is close behind with 17 aces dealt this season.
- Six Rainbow Wahine have notched 12+ aces - Guersching (12), Talia Edmonds (12), Lang (14), Igiede (17), Wagoner (18) and Alexander (18)
- Overall this season, UH has served 111 total aces while being aced by opponents 93 times.
HAM COMING THRU IN RELIEF
- Senior opposite Kendra Ham started 10-straight matches starting at TCU through UH's road match at UCSB.
- In her last four appearances, Ham has come off the bench and provided a spark with a combined 14 kills with one error in 19 attacks for a .684 hitting percentage.
- In UH's last match at CSUB, Ham came off the bench and provided instant offense, ending up with four kills in six swings with an error that helped propel UH past the 'Runners down the stretch.
- Overall, Ham has appeared in 41 sets and has 75 kills, 103 digs, and 17.0 blocks.
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