Another day, another big Hawai’i victory.
The Rainbow Wahine, not ranked in the AVCA preseason poll, but sure to be in the top 25 when the new rankings come out, capped a 3-0 weekend Sunday with an upset of No. 13 Washington.
There were no other upsets Sunday, but two important outcomes involving ranked teams as No. 4 Texas stormed back after losing the first set to beat No. 14 USC in four, and No. 6 Illinois beat No. 19 Tennessee in five sets for the second time in three days.
Monday’s NCAA volleyball schedule is now reduced to three matches as Maryland plays host to Howard, Louisiana-Monroe goes to Grambling, and LIU Brooklyn is at Wyoming. The match in Charleston, S.C., between The Citadel and College of Charleston has been postponed because of Hurricane Dorian. For that matter, The Citadel has also postponed its Thursday match with North Carolina Central.
Hawai’i is hot: Hawai’i opened its home tournament by beating No. 21 San Diego, then held off St. John’s, and then knocked off Washington 25-20, 25-12, 20-25, 25-16 to go 3-0 for the first time since 2015.
Oregon transfer Jolie Rasmussen continued to light it up as the junior outside led with 19 kills, hitting .432, to go with an assist, an ace, 10 digs and five blocks. She was named the tourney’s MVP. Hanna Helvig, a freshman from Sweden, had 11 kills, five digs, four blocks, and an ace. Another Oregon transfer, Brooke Van Sickle, had seven kills, five assists, an ace, four digs and — at 5-foot-9 — seven blocks. Freshman Amber Igiede had four kills and nine blocks.
Kara Bajema led Washington with 14 kills but hit .000. Claire Hoffman had 11 kills. Avie Niece had five kills and eight blocks, one solo.
Sunday’s top 25: Texas is still without sophomore middle Brionne Butler (204 kills in 2018 and a team-leading 130 blocks), who watched the match wearing a boot. But that didn’t keep the Longhorns from improving to 2-0 with a 23-25, 25-18, 25-17, 25-21 victory over visiting USC.
In a sold-out Gregory Gym, sophomore Logan Eggleston led with 16 kills and hit .333 to go with five aces — which included three during an 8-0 run to start the second set — five digs and two blocks.
Freshman Skylar Fields had 14 kills and hit .458 and had three blocks. After two matches, Fields has 29 kills and is hitting .520. Senior Micaya White had 12 kills, an assist, an ace, eight digs and a block.
USC (1-1) got 16 kills from senior Khalia Lanier, who had an assist, two aces, and nine digs. Freshman Kalen Owes had 10 kills, an assist, an ace, six digs and two blocks …
Jacqueline Quade, who had 31 kills for Illinois when it won in five at Tennessee on Friday, came back with 21 more Sunday in her team’s 25-22, 25-18, 21-25, 20-25, 15-8 home victory. Quade added three assists, two aces, eight digs and two blocks. Ashlyn Fleming had 12 kills and nine blocks, and Megan Cooney had 10 kills and three blocks.
UT’s Morgahn Fingall and Danielle Mahaffey had 11 kills each and Tessa Grubbs— who had 29 kills Friday — had 10 …
Purdue, ranked No. 17, opened its season with a 22-25, 25-17, 31-29, 25-19 win over visiting Ohio. Caitlyn Newton had 14 kills for the Boilermakers and Oliva Margolies had 14 for Ohio …
San Diego salvaged its weekend by beating St. John’s 25-17, 25-23, 25-23 behind 12 kills and six blocks from Megan Jacobsen. Rachele Rastelli had 15 kills for 0-3 St. John’s …
And No. 25 Louisville swept Dayton as Melanie McHenry, Claire Chaussee and Aiko Jones had eight kills apiece in the 25-17, 25-14, 25-19 victory. Jamie Peterson had 12 kills for 0-3 Dayton.
Around the nation: TCU capped a 3-0 weekend with a four-set win over Villanova (2-1) as Audrey Nalls had 20 kills, 13 digs, two assists, an ace, and a solo block … Army West Point finished the weekend 3-0 with victories Sunday over Rhode Island and Iona …
Green Bay beat 0-3 Indiana State in five sets to improve to 4-0 as Taylor Wolf had 24 kills, hit .477, and had four blocks and nine digs. Madeline Williams had 17 kills for the Sycamores …
Colgate won in five over Buffalo as Alli Lowe had 22 kills and Alex Stein 18. Polina Prokudina had 17 kills for Buffalo and Monika Simkova had 16 … Jennifer Leitman of Providence had 21 kills in a five-set loss to East Carolina. ECU’s Bri Wood and Sydney Kleinman had 19 kills each …
And UCF rallied to win in five at Ole Miss as Anne-Marie Watson had 20 kills in the 24-26, 21-25, 25-21, 25-21, 15-10 victory. She hit .385 and had six blocks. McKenna Melville and Kristina Fisher had 13 kills apiece. Melville had an ace, 12 digs and three blocks, one solo as the Knights improved to 2-1. Ole Miss, which finished 0-3 at home, got 21 kills from Emily Stroup, who added 14 digs, two assists and a solo block. Anna Bair had 19 kills, five digs and two blocks.
