Friday’s match against league-leading Cal Poly certainly wasn’t a must-win, but the Hawaii women’s volleyball team sure played like it was. Showing the same form they displayed in a road sweep of Long Beach State two weeks ago, the Rainbow Wahine needed only three sets to knock off preseason Big West favorite Cal Poly 25-21, 29-27, 25-21 at Mott Athletics Center in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Junior outside hitter Caylen Alexander put down a match-high 18 kills and middle Jacyn Bamis added a career-high 15 kills as Hawaii (11-6, 5-2) knocked the Mustangs (13-6, 6-2) out of first place in the conference.
“I can’t complain. They came out and played tonight,” Hawaii coach Robyn Ah Mow said. “The things we actually did to get them ready for it worked out.
Our defense today hardly had any balls drop to the ground and I think Kate (Lang) did a great job distributing the ball.” Lang, who started her 101st consecutive match at setter, had a match-high 49 assists, nine digs, a career-high five aces and two kills. Hawaii hit .
298 for the match, with four of its attackers hitting .310 or better. Sophomore Tali Hakas hit a career-high .
450 with nine kills and no errors and added 10 digs and four blocks. “Beating Cal Poly on the road is a huge win. They are a very talented team and I think we knew that going into the game, but coming out of the game knowing what just happened is filling our buckets with confidence,” Lang said.
“Tali is Tali, man. She just gets on the cou.