HONOLULU — The University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team opened the final weekend of the regular season with a 25-17, 29-27, 25-21 sweep of UC San Diego on Friday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.
 
The Rainbow Wahine (20-8, 13-4 Big West) hit .313 in the match with middle blocker Amber Igiede starting senior weekend with a match-high 14 kills on 24 attacks to hit .500 for the math. Freshman outside hitter Tali Hakas added a career-high 12 kills in her third straight double-digit performance and sophomore outside hitter Caylen Alexander put away five of her seven kills late in the third set to help UH close out the match.
 
Senior middle blocker Kennedi Evans finished with seven kills on 14 error-free attacks and senior outside hitter Kendra Ham had five kills and two aces, including one to finish out a tight second set that featured 19 ties and six lead changes.
 
UH setter Kate Lang recorded her team-leading 12^th double-double of the season with 29 assists and 11 digs and freshman Jackie Matias set a career high with 17 assists in combining to run an attack that hit .313 for the match before a crowd of 6,003. Libero Tayli Ikenaga anchored UH's floor defense with 13 digs.
 
UH caps the regular season off on Saturday against Long Beach State and enters the final day of the schedule tied with the Beach and Cal Poly for second in the Big West standing. All three will be vying the second seed in next week's inaugural Big West Championship in Long Beach, Calif., which comes with a bye in the opening round and a spot in the semifinals. UC Santa Barbara clinched the regular-season title and the top seed in the tournament.
 
The 'Bows never trailed in the first set, scoring the first four points of the match and opening up a 14-7 lead with a 5-0 run that included back-to-back kills from Hakas and a solo block by Evans. UH continued to pull away and led 21-12 on an Igiede solo block on its way to closing out the set, 25-17.
 
UH again jumped out to an early lead in the second set before UCSD went on a 4-0 run to take its first lead of the match at 9-8. There were 14 ties before an extended rally ended with a UCSD attack error into the net, giving UH set point at 24-23. The Tritons forced deuce for the 15^th tie then earned a set point on a kill by Jasmine Saran. UH answered with a kill by Ham and a dig by Ikenaga's dig went to Igiede who tapped it down for a kill to push UH ahead 27-26. UCSD forged the 19^th tie of the set before Ham gave UH another set point with a kill then finished it off with an ace.
 
The see-saw duel bridged the intermission into the third set with neither team leading by more than two until an ace from Igiede and an Alexander kill gave UH a 22-19 lead. Alexander scored off the block and her fifth kill in a 6-1 UH run gave UH match point. Evans then scored on a slide to end the match.  

Sabire Karacaova led UCSD with 10 kills and libero Natalie Repetti had a match-high 18 digs.
 
The Rainbow Wahine will celebrate Senior Night following Saturday's regular-season finale against Long Beach State. The match will mark the final home matches for Evans, Ham, Igiede, Talia Edmonds, Riley Wagoner and Chandler Cowell and the group will be honored in the traditional postgame ceremony.