Rainbow Wahine suffer second straight sweep in home loss to Cal Poly

A rematch of last season’s final in the Outrigger Big West Championship looked a lot different for the five-time defending conference winners.

Emma Fredrick put down a match-high 12 kills and Kendall Beshear and Annabelle Thalken added nine apiece to help Cal Poly avenge last November’s season-ending loss to the Rainbow Wahine with a 25-20, 25-14, 25-22 sweep on Friday night in its final visit to Bankoh Arena at Stan Sheriff Center as a conference rival.

A crowd of 4,659 saw Hawaii drop its sixth consecutive set in Big West play to fall to 6-10 overall and 2-3 in the BWC.

The last time the two teams met, Hawaii rushed the court celebrating a conference title at Bren Events Center in Irvine, Calif.

This time, UH exited its home floor with major questions about whether it can finish in the top six and reach the Big West tournament.

“We have the pieces to win and we have the pieces to make it to the Big West tournament, and if we do get there and when we do get there, we know what it takes to win there,” Hawaii associate coach Kaleo Baxter said. “It’s getting out of our own way and just bring it up there and going out and balling.”

Cal Poly (13-5, 4-2) snapped a four-match losing streak to UH.

The Mustangs hit .312 with 45 total kills while holding Hawaii to 29 kills and a .104 hitting percentage.

“Just so much gratitude for this community and what they bring. I’ve been lucky enough to be here the entire time Hawaii has been in the Big West and this is a tough place to play. They have so much passion for what is going on,” Cal Poly coach Caroline Walters said. “To be able to compete over the last few years and squeeze in a few wins here and there, I’m just proud of what our program has done over that time.”

Senior Tyla Reese Mane had a team-high 10 kills for UH with no errors and freshman Cha’lei Reid had three of Hawaii’s seven service aces. Victoria Leyva contributed a team-high 13 digs.

“Tyla had a great hitting night. She was smart with her shot selections, but that’s a lot of unforced errors if they have five blocks and we have 17 hitting errors,” Baxter said. “We didn’t serve tough when we needed to and there was a lot of looking around and looking for someone else to make a play. You’re not going to win a lot of games if you do that.”

Hawaii opened with a starting lineup featuring Bri Gunderson at middle blocker after she had spent the past two weeks at opposite.

Gunderson had three kills and a block early to keep UH in the first set, and fellow middle Miliana Sylvester put down a kill to pull within a point at 21-20.

Cal Poly closed on a 4-0 run and outhit UH .250 to .160 in the first set.

Hawaii also started both setters in the first set but went with seldom used Morgan Monahan at opposite to start the second set.

The Mustangs opened that set on a 9-3 run, with a Beshear ace prompting Hawaii to call timeout.

Cal Poly had two runs of at least four points as Hawaii struggled again offensively, putting down only five kills in the set.

A Leilani Lopez ace is the only thing that allowed UH to avoid getting more than doubled up on in a set by a conference opponent for the second time in as many matches.

“We need to figure out how to get out of our own ways and kind of figure out what this slump is,” Mane said. “Overall, I agree that a lot of things need to change.”

An early 4-2 lead quickly became an 11-6 deficit in the third set for Hawaii, which called timeout after the Mustangs scored five of six points. A Reid kill pulled the Rainbow Wahine within 15-14 before the Mustangs responded with their sixth scoring run of at least four points in the match.

Hawaii managed one last run, with a Reid ace prompting Cal Poly to call timeout leading 20-18.

Reid’s next serve out of the timeout hit the top of the tape and trickled over for her third ace of the match to cut the deficit to a point.

Reid served just out of the back corner on her next attempt and Cal Poly closed out the match on a Fredrick kill.

Hawaii will host UC Santa Barbara (11-6, 3-2) on Sunday at 5 p.m. before playing five of its next six matches on the road.