HONOLULU — The University of Hawai'i women's volleyball team claimed three individual awards and a total of six Rainbow Wahine were recognized on the Big West 2024 All-Conference Team announced on Tuesday.
 
UH outside hitter Caylen Alexander was named the Big West Player of the Year after rising to the top of the national and conference rankings in total kills. Kate Lang earned the Setter of the Year honor for the second time in her career, and fellow senior Tayli Ikenaga became the first UH player to be named Libero of the Year.
 
Alexander and Lang were also voted to the All-Big West first team by the conference's coaches. Ikenaga made the second team and junior middle blocker Jacyn Bamis and sophomore outside hitter Tali Hakas were honorable mention selections. Middle blocker Miliana Sylvester was named to the All-Freshman Team to round out UH's list of honorees.
 
Alexander is the 10^th UH player to be named Big West Player of the Year and the sixth since the Rainbow Wahine rejoined the conference in 2012. The award went to a Rainbow Wahine player for the fourth time in the past five seasons (not counting the cancelled 2020 season), following the line of Norene Iosia (2019), Brooke Van Sickle (2021) and Amber Igiede (2022).
 
Alexander enters postseason play as the NCAA Division I leader in total kills (566) and ranks second in total points (626.0). She also ranks third nationally in kills per set (5.24), fifth in points per set (5.80), and 17^th in attacks per set (11.88). She was previously the Big West Freshman of the Year and a second-team All-Big West selection in 2022. After earning honorable mention recognition last season, she elevated her game as a junior to earn the Big West Offensive Player of the Week award a conference-record seven times this fall on her way to the Player of the Year honor.
 
Her kills total is the program's highest under the current 25-point scoring system was adopted by the NCAA in 2008. She posted at least 20 kills in 14 matches and is the first player to go over 30 kills twice in a season since 2012.
 
Lang won the inaugural Big West Setter of the Year award as a sophomore in 2022 and picked up her second as a senior while earning All-Big West first team honors for the third time. She leads the conference and ranks 11^th nationally with 1,195 total assists and is 23^rd in Division I with 10.58 assists per set. Lang rose to third in program history in career assists this season and is just the third UH setter to record more than 4,000 assists and 1,000 digs in a career. She was named the Big West Setter of the Week five times this season and 16 times in her career. Her current career average of 10.44 assists per set would rank seventh in UH history.

Ikenaga, a four-year starter in the Rainbow Wahine back row, earned All-Big West honors for the first time in her career. She's posted double-digit digs in 25 of 28 matches and went over 20 digs in six matches, including a career-high 33 against Pepperdine on Sept. 7. She surpassed 1,000 career digs at UNLV on Sept. 17 and has since risen to fifth in UH history with 1,320 career digs. She ranks second in the conference with 454 total digs and 4.02 digs per set and twice was named the Big West Defensive Player of the Week.

Bamis entered the season as the lone returning middle blocker on the roster and hit .315 while averaging 2.61 kills per set in Big West matches in her junior season. Hakas averages 2.02 kills per set and is second on the team with 2.83 digs per set. Sylvester has started all 28 matches in her freshman season and leads UH's regulars with a .296 hitting percentage and has a team-high 82 blocks.
 
The Rainbow Wahine enter The Hawaiian Islands presents the 2024 Outrigger Big West Women's Volleyball Championship as the second seed in the six-team bracket. UH has a bye into the semifinal round and will face the winner of Wednesday's match between third-seeded UC Davis and sixth-seed and host UC Irvine on Friday at the Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif. The semifinal match is scheduled for 6 p.m. Pacitic Time (4 p.m. Hawai'i Time) and will air on ESPN+.