Hawai‘i 3, Idaho 0
The No. 4 University of Hawai‘i Rainbow Wahine volleyball team (17-1, 7-0 WAC) swept through the Idaho Vandals (10-11, 5-5) 25-20, 25-7 and 25-19 in a match shown nationally on ESPNU at Memorial Gym Thursday.
Kanani Danielson led the way, hitting .333 with 15 kills and 11 digs. Chanteal Satele also added 12 kills and five blocks while Brittany Hewitt hit .538 with nine kills and three blocks. Emily Hartong posted eight kills while hitting .389 with Elizabeth Ka‘aihue contributing a match-high 18 digs.
Hawai‘i jumped out early, taking a 5-1 lead to start the first set. The Vandals pulled it back to a three-point deficit on a few occasions before a four-point run pushed the Rainbow Wahine lead to 16-9. Idaho worked their way back into the match, getting within two at 21-19 and 22-20. But Danielson put the team on her back, winning the set 25-20 on a play where she put away the kill after diving into press row to save a ball earlier in the rally.
An early 5-0 run put Hawai‘i ahead 7-2 to start the second set. Ka`aihue served the Rainbow Wahine on a seven-point run, pushing UH's advantage to 16-4. After a Vandal point, Mita Uiato then served another seven-point run, getting it to 23-5 before the Rainbow Wahine put it away 25-7.
Idaho showed signs of life to start the third set, going ahead 7-2 to start. UH ran off six of the next seven points to tie it at 8-8. The Vandals took back the lead and continued to hold it until a big 6-1 run by the Rainbow Wahine put them ahead 19-16. Hawai‘i would then run away with it, scoring 13 of the last 17 points in all to take the third set 25-19.
Utah State 3, Louisiana Tech 0
Sophomore outside hitter Josselyn White had eight kills, five blocks and a career-high 13 digs to help Utah State to a three-set win (25-13, 25-23, 25-12) against Louisiana Tech here Thursday in a Western Athletic Conference match.
Utah State improves to 15-5 overall and 3-4 in the WAC with the win, while Louisiana Tech falls to 10-13 on the season and 0-8 in league play with the loss. With the win, USU snaps its season-high two-match losing streak.
Junior outside hitter Liz McArthur (St. George, Utah) had nine kills to lead Utah State to go along with nine digs, while senior middle blocker Shantell Durrant (American Fork, Utah) had six kills and four blocks, and hit .667 (6-0-9). Junior opposite side hitter Emily Kortsen (Hollister, Calif.) played in just the third set but finished with five kills on eight swings for a .625 hitting percentage (5-0-8), and White (Smithfield, Utah) finished with a .250 (8-3-20) hitting percentage. Senior libero Christine Morrill (Neola, Utah) also played well for USU as she tied her career-high with four service aces.
Kassia Pinto had seven kills and Kara Jones finished the match with six kills to lead Louisiana Tech.
Utah State opened a quick 8-3 lead in the first set and then scored the final five points for an easy 25-13 win. USU hit .333 (10-2-24) in the opening set and had four service aces, while Louisiana Tech hit .000 (8-8-30).
Louisiana Tech fought back in the second set and used a 6-0 run to turn an 8-6 deficit into a 12-8 advantage. The Lady Techsters increased its advantage to five at 17-12 before USU went on a 9-2 run to lead 21-19 and eventually won, 25-23. USU hit .000 (11-11-43) in the second set but had four team blocks and two service aces, while LTU hit .021 (11-10-48).
Utah State scored nine of the first 11 points in the third set and coasted to the 13-point win as Kortsen had five kills. USU hit .516 (18-2-31) in the third set as compared to a .200 (5-1-20) hitting percentage for LTU.
Utah State finished the match by hitting .245 (39-15-98) and Louisiana Tech hit .051 (24-19-98). USU also had eight more service aces (10-2), seven more digs (47-40) and four more team blocks (10-6) in the match, while both teams had five service errors.
New Mexico State 3, Nevada 1
The New Mexico State volleyball team defeated Nevada in four sets (16-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-21) inside the Virginia Street Gym Thursday night.
With the win the Aggies improve to 8-1 in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and 14-9 overall. Nevada falls to 4-4 in the conference and 10-11 on the season after the loss.
NM State hit .175 against Nevada recording 56 kills against 29 errors. On the other side of the net, the Wolf Pack posted 52 kills versus 18 miscues. The Aggies notched 62 digs while the Pack tallied 59.
"Nevada has a good team and they play really well here," head coach Mike Jordan said. "We didn't play much defense in the first set and they hit the ball really well. We knew we had to get our act together defensively after that set and fortunately we did. "
Junior Jennah DeVries tallied a match-high 42 assists while adding five kills and 11 digs for her sixth double-double of the year. Senior Kayleigh Giddens led the team in kills with 23. Senior Whitney Woods added 10 kills. Junior libero Kelsi Phillips led the defense with a match-high 17 digs.
Nevada took set one 25-17. The beginning of the set was full of rallies. The Wolf Pack jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. The Aggies rallied to take the lead with four straight points at 4-2. But Nevada strung together seven straight tallies to lead 9-4 and never trailed again. NM State cut the lead down to three on multiple occasions but could get no closer. Giddens led the Aggies with three kills in the set. NM State hit .026 with nine kills against nine errors. Nevada tallied 15 kills and committed just three errors to hit .286.
The Aggies turned it around in set two to even the match at one set apiece with a 25-22 win. NM State posted 14 kills while making just five errors in the stanza to record a .310 hitting percentage. NM State steadily built a seven-point lead at 12-5 but Nevada stormed back with a 15-8 run to tie the match at 20-all. The Wolf Pack took a brief lead at 21-20 but the Aggies won five of the final six points to take the set. Giddens again led the Aggie attack with five clean attacks while senior Whitney Woods and junior Kelsey Brennan each added three kills.
In set three Giddens' seven kills led the Aggies to a 25-20 win to lead the match 2-1. After Nevada opened the scoring, NM State scored five straight to lead 5-1 and never looked back. The Aggies built their biggest lead of the match at 13-5. The Wolf Pack rallied to within two after a 7-1 flurry. But the Aggies held off the home team down the stretch for the win. The Aggies hit .116 in the set with 14 kills and nine errors. Nevada hit .212 in the third with 10 kills and three errors.
The fourth set started much like the third with Nevada opening with a point and then the Aggies rattled off six straight to take command early. Nevada closed to within two at 14-12 but the Aggies held off the Wolf Pack the rest of the set to clinch the match at 25-21.
Lindsay Baldwin led the Wolf Pack with 13 kills in the match while Nicole Link topped the Nevada defense with 19 digs.