HONOLULU – The No. 5 University of Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine volleyball team rallied back in the season-opener to defeat the No. 22 San Diego Toreros 25-14, 22-25, 21-25, 25-16 and 15-9 in front of a crowd of 6,215 at the Stan Sheriff Center Friday.

 

Brittany Hewitt broke a school rally-scoring record with 16 blocks in the match, adding eight kills and two aces. Chanteal Satele came up with a big double-double in her UH debut, posting 14 kills, 12 blocks, six digs and a .303 hitting percentage. As a team, Hawai'i had 21.5 blocks. Kanani Danielson led all players with 18 kills, hitting .316 with four blocks and eight digs while freshman Emily Hartong had nine kills and three blocks her collegiate debut.

 

The Rainbow Wahine opened the match dominating at the net, as Hewitt had five early blocks to push UH to a quick 11-3 advantage. Hawai'i continued to keep their distance from the Toreros throughout, finishing with eight team blocks and a .407 hitting percentage to take the first set 25-14.

 

San Diego started the second set taking an 8-4 edge. The Toreros kept that four-point spread at 14-10, only to see a seven-point UH run give the Rainbow Wahine the lead at 17-14. A couple more Hewitt blocks got the Hawai'i advantage to 20-16. But USD had a comeback left in them, running off five of the next six points to tie it at 21. After a Rainbow Wahine point, San Diego caught fire, scoring the next four points to take the second set 25-21.

 

Hawai'i opened the third set with a 3-1 edge, only to see four-straight USD points put the Toreros ahead 5-3. The blocking tandem of Hewitt and Satele combined for two blocks to give UH back the lead at 6-5. After a couple small runs by both teams, the set got really tight. A late 4-0 run put USD ahead 22-18. Hawai'i couldn't do better than trading points the rest of the way, falling in the third 25-21.

 

The Rainbow Wahine opened the fourth set with a 4-1 edge, only to see three-straight points by the Toreros tie it at 4-4. At 6-6, Hawai'i started to make their move. UH scored nine of the next 12 points to pull ahead 15-9 at the media timeout. Hawai'i kept pushing as a triple block ended the fourth set with a 25-16 Rainbow Wahine victory.

 

Hewitt had consecutive aces to push Hawai'i to a 3-0 edge to start the fifth. But the Toreros wouldn't go away so easily. USD whittled their way to within a point at 6-5. Hewitt would get back to her block party, while Danielson took over on the attack. Danielson put up six of her match-high 18 kills, including the match-winner, in the fifth set, pushing the Rainbow Wahine to the 15-9 victory.

 

In the first match of the invitational, No. 16 UCLA swept through Kansas State 26-24, 25-18 and 25-19. The Bruins will face USD at 5 p.m. tomorrow before Hawai'i faces Kansas State at 7 p.m.