Rainbow Wahine kick off weekend with 4-set win over UC San Diego

RELATED PHOTO GALLERY Hawaii’s magic number is one entering the final day of the regular season.

The Rainbow Wahine put themselves in position to clinch a berth in next week’s Outrigger Big West Women’s Volleyball Championship 25-18, 25-20, 18-25, 25-15 on Friday night at Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

Coupled with UC Irvine’s five-set loss to UC Santa Barbara, in which the decisive set went to 16-14, Hawaii needs either a win tonight or an Anteaters loss to Cal Poly today to play beyond this evening’s senior night festivities. Tonight’s final match of the regular season is against rival Long Beach State, which is hosting the conference tournament beginning Wednesday.

“We’re all excited, especially for (tonight ), ” said UH setter Adrianna Arquette, who collected her 10th double-double of the season with 39 assists and 12 digs. “Ready to come in and make those adjustments that we’ve been working on since the last time we played them.”

A crowd of 4, 431 saw the Rainbow Wahine remain undefeated in 11 all-time meetings against the Tritons (6-24, 4-14 ), who finished their year on a five-match losing streak after sweeping UC Santa Barbara.

Freshman outside hitter Cha’lei Reid put down a match-high 18 kills with eight digs for Hawaii, and middle Bri Gunderson added nine kills and eight blocks.

Tyla Reese Mane, had eight kills, seven digs and five blocks. She and fellow seniors Gunderson and Morghn Monahan will be honored after tonight’s match against the Beach.

Mane hit.421 in the match and did not commit an error.

“A big word we’ve talked about throughout the season is discipline, ” Mane said. “Going out and playing disciplined and also trusting myself. Also taking smarter swings and not swinging for the fences.”

Hawaii finished with 12 blocks and had 10 aces. Junior Leilani Lopez had a UH career-high three aces and was behind the service line for scoring runs of at least three points in all three sets UH won.

“A lot of credit to that girl. She doesn’t get a lot of playing time but is one of those girls who is always ready when she gets called on, ” Hawaii assistant coach Nick Castello said. “She’s effective whether it’s getting clean aces or getting teams off of the net.”

The Tritons, playing with backups at setter and libero and an interim head coach, challenged UH early in the first set.

Hawaii trailed 17-16 before rattling off nine of the next 10 points, including a set-ending 7-0 run with Lopez serving the final six points.

UH’s last three points came on two Lopez aces and an overpass that led to a kill by Miliana Sylvester as UH hit.303 in the opening set with five blocks.

The Rainbow Wahine built a 10-3 lead in the second set only to see the Tritons erase it.

Marleena Catalan served an ace and a UH hitting error prompted Hawaii to call timeout trailing 19-18.

Hawaii got a kill from Arquette to tie the set and UH was able to bring in Lopez to serve once again. Lopez’s tough serves led to kills from Sylvester and Reid and UH scored seven of the final eight points to go up two sets to none.

UCSD avoided a sweep in the third set, holding UH to a.152 hitting percentage and no blocks.

Lopez again came up with a good service turn, rattling off four straight points to give UH a 10-5 advantage in the fourth set.

Hawaii led by as many as 11 before closing out the match on solo block by Arquette.

“They definitely responded and you could tell from the starting of the week, ” Castello said. “They all know what’s on the line. It’s not like we gave games away last week, we didn’t play our best. We went to the lab this week and worked on some things and had a nice serve and pass today and we felt good going into tonight. That’s one checkmark down, but we know we’re not finished.”