HONOLULU--The University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team (19-8, 12-4 Big West) hosts its final two matches of the regular season as they fight for seeding for the upcoming Big West Championship. The Rainbow Wahine will battle UC San Diego (17-12, 9-8 Big West) first on Friday, Nov. 17 followed by Hawai'i's Senior Night against long-time rival Long Beach State (19-8, 13-4 Big West) on Saturday, Nov. 18th. First serve for both matches is at 7:00 p.m. HT. Following Saturday's match vs. The Beach, UH will honor its six-member senior class--Chandler Cowell, Talia Edmonds, Kennedi Evans, Kendra Ham, Amber Igiede, and Riley Wagoner.
 

MATCH #28 & 29
Opponent | Date | Time				UC San Diego (17-12, 9-8 Big West) - Friday, Nov. 17, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. HT Long BeachState (19-8, 13-4 Big West) - Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. HT
Location				SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center (10,300) - Honolulu, O'ahu
Tickets				ETicketHawaii.com
Promotions				FRIDAY - California Hotel and Casino is the sponsor of Friday's "Military Night" and will award a 4-night room and meals package at the California Hotel and Casino. In honor of Veterans Day, Active, DOD civilians, reservists, and retired members of the military with valid military ID will receive 50% off select regularly priced tickets (maximum of eight) by clicking on the link (https://shorturl.at/bnRU8) or in person at the SimpliFi arena in advance or on game day.  SATURDAY - The University of Hawaii Federal Credit Union is the sponsor of Saturday's "Show UHM Your Aloha" Senior Night match and will award a Galaxy Tab A8 during the match. Visit the sports marketing table (located at Gate A) to participate in the promotions. "Show UHM Your Aloha" to the Senior Class,  fans are encouraged to wear their favorite Aloha apparel and bring ti leaves to the senior night festivities. *In the spirit of the Thanksgiving Holiday, UH Athletics in partnership with Food Vault Hawai'i will host a food and toiletries drive on Saturday. Fans are encouraged to donate non-perishable food items from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Gate A.
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) Kanoa Leahey (Play-by-Play), Chris McLachlin (Color); Scott Robbs, Lisa Strand, Ryan Kalei Tsuji (Friday), Dave Shoji (Saturday) (Pre/Post match)
Live Stream				vs. UC San Diego - ESPN+ (Blacked out in Hawai'i) vs. Long Beach State - 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. UC San Diego vs. Long Beach State
Game Notes				Hawai'i  |  UC San Diego  | Long Beach State
Social Media				@HawaiiWVB  | #HawaiiWVB | #GoBows | @HawaiiWVB  | Facebook

HAWAI'I RAINBOW WAHINE (19-8, 12-4 Big West)Head Coach: Robyn Ah Mow (Seventh Season)
Record at UH: 127-42 
Big West Record: 89-11
 
UC SAN DIEGO (17-12, 9-8 Big West)Head Coach: Ricci Luyties (14th Season)
Series record: UH leads, 6-0
Streak: UH won last six
Last meeting: UH bounced back after a tough loss at Long Beach State to sweep UC San Diego on the road, 25-18, 25-16, 25-17. UH middle Kennedi Evans had a career-high 13 kills and a match-high .522 hit%. Fellow middle Amber Igiede added 10 kills. Hawai'i's offense was clicking. With Kate Lang at the controls, UH out-hit the Tritons .388-to-.190. All five UH starting hitters recorded six or more kills an in all, nine different Rainbow Wahine posted at least one kill--including Lang herself adding two. Paula Guersching made her first UH start against the Tritons.

LONG BEACH STATE (19-8, 13-4 Big West)Head Coach: Tyler Hildebrand (Second Setson
Series record: UH leads UH leads 41-19-1
Streak: LBSU won one
Last meeting: The Beach swept UH handily in the first round, 22-25, 24-26, 21-25 to snap UH's 11-match win streak over Long Beach State. The 'Bows had the lead in every set at 17 points, but it was The Beach who would come through in the clutch to pull away for the convincing three-set win. UH committed a combined 32 errors which plagued the 'Bows with 19 hitting errors, 10 service errors and three serve receive errors. Hawai'i's middles, Igiede and Evans combined for 17 kills with a .307 hitting percentage, but the three starting pin-hitters struggled, hitting a combined .030 (14-12-67) for the match. 

LAST TIME OUT...Last week the 'Bows swept UC Irvine and came back after a slow start at Cal State Fullerton to win in four to go 2-0 in Week 12.
•  UH's UCI match was moved into the 800-seat Crawford Hall due to damage to the Bren Events Center. Hawai'i was dialed in from the get-go and finished with an efficient, 25-12, 25-19, 25-16 win. Hawai'i's pin-hitters--Paula Guersching, Tali Hakas and Kendra Ham combined for 30 of UH's 42 kills. Guersching led UH with 12 kills with zero errors in 22 sings for a .545 hitting percentage.
•  In the win, Igiede was in on a match-high eight blocks. On her third block, Igiede became only the fourth Rainbow Wahine in history to record over 1,000 kills and 500 blocks. The elite club consists all of All-Americans Angelica Ljungqvist (1993-96), Suzanne Eagye (1984-87) and Deitre Collins (1980-83) and now Igiede. She is the first player since Ljungqvist to accomplish the feat.
•  In UH's final regular season road finally, the 'Bows got off to a sluggish start, falling in Set 1 to Cal State Fullerton, In Set 2, UH turned things around with the offense started to click. UH finished strong, 23-25, 25-17, 25-22, 25-14. Setter Kate Lang posted her team-best 11th double-double with 40 assists and 13 digs. Igiede led all hitters with 17 kills and tied her season-high with three service aces. For the second-straight match, Hakas tied her career-high 11 kills.

NEWS & NOTESBIG WEST STANDINGS

• UC Santa Barbara clinched the No. 1 seed for the upcoming Big West Championship
• Currently, Hawai'i, Long Beach State and Cal Poly all have four losses and are all fighting for the No. 2 seed and an opening round bye this weekend.
• Although UC San Diego is in fifth place with a conference record of 9-8, they will not compete in the BW Championships because they are in the final year of their reclassification period to the NCAA DI.

HAWAI'I TO HONOR ITS SIX SENIORS ON SATURDAY

• The Rainbow Wahine will honor its six seniors following Saturday's match vs. Long Beach State. The 'Bows will recognize the careers and contributions of Chandler Cowell, Talia Edmonds, Kennedi Evans, Kendra Ham, Amber Igiede and Riley Wagoner. 
• Igiede and Wagoner are two of five in head coach Robyn Ah Mow's first true recruiting class in 2018 with Braelyn Akana, Hanna Hellvig and Tiffany Westerberg.
• Ham transferred to Hawai'i from Cal Poly after the Covid season (2020). 
• Cowell, Edmonds and Evans all transferred to UH after graduating from their original schools to Hawai'i to fulfuill their final two years of elibigility. Cowell transferred from St. Mary's (CA); Edmonds came from Michigan State and Evans metriculated from Utah.

THE PERCENTAGES  

• Hawai'i is 13-0 when hitting above .250 this year and 6-8 when hitting below .250.
• Defensively UH is 16-3 when holding their opponents' to a .200-or-below hitting percentage.

LANG EARNS SEVENTH BIG WEST SETTER OF THE WEEK AWARD

• Lang earned her seventh Big West Setter of the Week award after leading UH to a pair of road wins. Lang passed the 3,000 career assist mark at Cal State Fullerton becoming only the 10th Rainbow Wahine to reach 3K.
• She issued a combined 79 assists while averaging 11.29 assists/set this past weekend. At UC Irvine on Friday, Lang had the UH offense humming to hit a combined .363 with 42 kills, only nine errors on 91 attacks. She dished out 39 assists with no errors in 76 attacks for a .513 assist percentage. On defense, she was in on a career-high six blocks and filled out her stat line with eight digs, a kill and an ace. At Cal State Fullerton, Lang posted her team-leading 11^th double-double of the season with 40 assists and 13 digs.
• This season, Lang has played in every set and is tops in the Big West with 1,011 total assists while averaging a league-high 10.42 assists/set (27th in the NCAA rankings). 

HAKAS RECEIVES FIRST BIG WEST WEEKLY AWARD

• Freshman pin-hitter Tali Hakas got the start in UH's last two road matches and twice matched her career high putting down 11 kills in each game. She finished the weekend with 22 kills, seven blocks, 15 digs and a pair of service aces.
• Against the Anteaters, she was in on a career-high six blocks while hitting .348 with 11 kills, three errors on 23 swings. Hakas also added seven digs and tallied a career-high 14.0 points in the match.
• At Cal State Fullerton, Hakas put down 11 kills with eight digs, two aces, an assist and one block. 
• In her rookie season, the Israel-native has put down 103 kills with 124 digs, 30 blocks and nine service aces.

IGIEDE REACHING NEW HEIGHTS

• Igiede's first third blocks at UC Irvine vaulted her into the Mt. Rushmore of UH middle blockers. She became just the fourth player in UH history to record both 1,000 kills and 500 blocks. She joined her former assistant indoor and head beach volleyball coach, Angelica Ljungqvist (1993-96), Suzanne Eagye (1984-87) and Deitre Collins (1980-83) as the only Rainbow Wahine to reach those milestones. Ljungqvist, who was the 1996 AVCA National Player of the Year, amassed 1,570 kills and 733 blocks. Eagye, who won the 1987 NCAA tile, is UH's all-time block leader and had 1,553 kills/743 blks. Deitre Collins, the 1983 Volleyball Magazine National Player of the Year recorded 1,385 kills/500 blocks. Igiede is the first player since Ljungqvist to join the elite club. 
• At Cal State Fullerton, Igiede's 17 kills propelled her past former UH All-American Emily Hartong into No. 12 on UH's all-time career kill list. Hartong put down 1,277 career kills and Igiede now has 1,290. She now trails Nikki Taylor for 11th place with 1,377 career kills.
• Igiede currently leads the conference with a .390 H%, 3.65 K/set, and 4.55 points/set.
• The veratile Igiede, has eight matches this year with at least a kill, a block, a dig, an assist, and a service ace--including UH's last match at Cal State Fullerton.
• She is the only Rainbow Wahine to have recorded at least a kill, a dig and a block in all 27 UH matches thus far.
• For her career, she has put down at least one kill in all 116  career match and has been in on at least one block in 115 our of 116 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

EVANS SOLID IN THE MIDDLE

• Senior middle Kennedi Evans has been on a tear lately. Overall, she has put down 162 kills, hitting .291 and averaging 1.69 kill/set and 79 total blocks.
• In conference, she has raised her game, averaging putting down 108 kills averaging 2.00 k/swhile hitting .336
• 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.
• She has recorded four double-digit kill matches this season.

IKENAGA EARNS LIBERO JOB

• Junior Tayli Ikenaga worked her way back into the starting lineup at libero for the last nine matches.
• She was the starting libero for her first two seasons at UH.
• 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 has double-digit digs in seven of UH's last 10 matches--including a season-high 18 at Cal State Fullerton.