UH whips Fresno St. to remain unbeaten

HONOLULU — The No. 2 University of Hawai‘i Rainbow Wahine (21-0, 11-0 WAC) all-but locked up their ninth-straight WAC title on Friday night with a 30-24, 31-29 and 30-17 victory over Fresno State (12-12, 5-7) in front of a crowd of 8,048 at the Stan Sheriff Center Friday.

With the win, Hawai‘i remains the only unbeaten team in conference play and have at least secured the top seed in the WAC Tournament, which will be played from Nov. 19-21 in Reno, Nev. The Rainbow Wahine also extended their WAC winning streak to 89 matches.

Alicia Arnott led the UH attack, putting away 15 kills and nine digs whil hitting .333. Kanoe Kamana‘o had 40 assists, 13 digs and six blocks, while Victoria Prince broke her own rally-scoring record in a three-game match with 10 blocks, while adding nine kills, two aces and a .474 hitting percentage. Tara Hittle also got into double-digits with 10 kills and seven digs.

Hawai‘i jumped out to a 8-6 lead on Prince’s first kill of the match. After allowing the Bulldogs to tie it at eight, UH took another four-point run to go up 12-8 before holding a 15-11 lead at the media timeout. The Rainbow Wahine then really started to get it going, as they got their edge up to 24-15 before a kill by Prince put it away 30-24.

UH again opened leads early in the second game at 18-15 and 23-20 before Fresno State started to make their run. They kept cutting away at the Hawai‘i lead, getting to game-point first at 29- 28. But Susie Boogaard pushed the Rainbow Wahine back, scoring two kills before a big block by Prince and Kamana‘o gave UH the 31-29 game two victory. The Rainbow Wahine never looked back, running off pointafter- point in the third game, including a stretch where Prince blocked three-straight balls, to take it 30-17.

Hawai‘i will stay home to host San Jose State and Nevada for their final two regular season home matches of the season on Friday, Nov. 12, and Saturday, Nov. 13.