Rainbow Wahine volleyball hits the road to continue Big West Conference play

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The wahine are on a roll.

The University of Hawaii women’s volleyball team coming off of wins against UC Davis and UC Riverside, they take their undefeated Big West conference record to the continent for matches against Cal State Fullerton and long time rival Long Beach State.

Two sweeps last weekend in Manoa, leading the way for UH was Riley Wagoner who notched a double double in both matches.

As a team, they tallied a season high .414 hitting percentage.

The Wahine persevering some adversity in the second set of their second match, UC Riverside taking an eight-point lead before UH clawed their way back to take that set, en route to the sweep.

A reminder to the team to stay cool under pressure.

“Remembering that volleyball is supposed to be fun and having rallies is a part of the fun.” UH setter Kate Lang told reporters. “So I am really trying to focus on that this week.”

Other match notes, UH tallied a combined 108 digs last weekend — a formula for success according to the coaches.

“Turning those digs into points, that’s how you really separate yourself from the other teams.” Assistant coach Kaleo Baxter said. “Serve tough, get them out of system, dig a ball and convert that dig into a point, so, you know, we thought our girls did a very nice job at times this past weekend and hopefully they’ll do it again this week.”

Looking at the weekend’s contests, Fullerton comes into the match with an 8-3 overall record and fast forward to Saturday, Hawaii takes a trip to the Walter Pyramid to face the 6-5 Beach.

“You know, we’re expecting them to dig a lot of balls and frustrate us and we just have to stick to our game plan.” Coach Baxter said. “Playing at Long Beach is always fun, it’s kind of a crazy environment, their fans get into it, but we travel well and we’re going to have just as many fans I think.”

A marquee match up between the ‘Bows and the Beach, a series that spans generations, however the girls aren’t feeding into the hype.

“I try to go into every game with the same want to win, so I’m not going into this game any less or any more for a need for success.” Lang said.

First serve for both matches are set for 4:00 p.m. Hawaii time — both games streaming on ESPN+.

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