Hawai'i 3, Boise State 0 – Fourth-ranked Hawai’i opened WAC play with a 25-21, 25-14, 25-14 sweep of Boise State Thursday night at the Stan Sheriff Center. With the win, the Rainbow Wahine improve to 10-2 on the season and 1-0 in WAC play, while the Broncos fall to 0-11 overall and 0-1 in the WAC.
Offensively, senior Aneli Cubi-Otineru led the way with 13 kills, hitting .345 and adding six digs. Sophomore Stephanie Ferrell had 11 kills and hit .381. UH played the match without sophomore Kanani Danielson, who missed her first match of the season.
Senior Amber Kaufman had seven kills, hit .667, and added four blocks and three service aces. Dani Mafua set the offense to a .429 hitting percentage in the match, with 33 assists and she added five digs and three blocks.
The Broncos were led by Liz Harden, who posted eight kills on .778 hitting.
Idaho 3, San Jose State 1 – Sarah Conwell nearly tallied a triple-double with 19 kills, 20 digs and seven blocks to help Idaho end a six-match losing streak and win its WAC opener 3-1 (25-13, 23-25, 25-23, 25-20) at San Jose State Thursday.
As a team, the Vandals hit .153 and held the Spartans to just .083, thanks in part to Idaho’s 17-8 advantage in blocks. The Vandals totaled 30 block assists to tie for 10th all-time in Idaho single-match history.
Conwell set career highs for digs and blocks and her 19 kills were the second-most of her career.
For the Spartans, Kylie Miraldi and Alex Akana each recorded 10 kills in the match.
New Mexico State 3, Utah State 0 – New Mexico State opened conference play with a sweep (25-22, 26-24, 25-20) of Utah State Thursday at the Pan American Center. New Mexico State, the defending WAC regular season co-champion, improved to 6-4 on the season and 1-0 in league play with the win, while Utah State dropped to 8-5 overall and 0-1 in the conference with the loss.
Junior Kayleigh Giddens led the NM State charge with a match-high 14 kills, while sophomore libero Kelsi Phillips had a match-high 17 digs.
Junior libero Christine Morrill led Utah State with 17 digs on the night, while junior outside hitter Lori Wilson-Beckstrom had a team-high seven kills and tied her career-high with five blocks.