HONOLULU – The No. 4 University of Hawai`i Rainbow Wahine volleyball team (5-1, 2-1 HAL) fell to the No. 10 Southern California Trojans (5-0, 2-0) 23-25, 25-22, 25-17, 18-25 and 15-7 in front of a crowd of 7,866 in the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic championship match at the Stan Sheriff Center Sunday.

 

Brittany Hewitt had a huge match, hitting .708 with 18 kills and 10 blocks, posting her career-highs in kills and hitting percentage. Kanani Danielson had 21 kills, 15 digs and four blocks while Emily Hartong posted nine kills and three blocks. Elizabeth Ka'aihue led all UH players with 18 digs.

 

The Trojans jumped on Hawai'i early, scoring the first four points of the first set. UH responded by scoring the next four points on the serve of Ka'aihue, tying it at 4-4. USC rebuilt their lead to five points on a couple occasions before Ka'aihue again stepped up at the service line, pushing the Rainbow Wahine on a torrid 6-0 run, giving them a 17-15 edge. From there, Hawai'i was able to side out their way to victory, with neither team scoring a point on their serve the rest of the way, taking the first set 25-23.

 

UH opened a 4-2 edge to start the second set. But Alex Jupiter led USC on a couple of big runs to put the Trojans ahead 11-7, forcing Dave Shoji to take an early timeout. Hawai'i answered out of the break, scoring the next four points to tie it up at 11-11. After eight ties and four lead changes, Jupiter put away three kills in a row to give USC a 22-19 advantage. Hawai'i would fight them off for a while before a big Trojan block ended it 25-22.

 

Southern California ran up a 6-3 lead to start the third set. Hawai'i turned it on to tie it at 7-7 before a big four-point run by USC put the Trojans back ahead 14-9. USC would fight on from there, taking the third set 25-17.

 

Down two sets to one for the third time this season, the Rainbow Wahine came out firing in the fourth set, going ahead 9-3. USC answered the call, scoring seven of the next eight points, tying it at 10. Hawai'i regained control with a three-point run and never looked back. Hewitt would post five kills and four blocks in the set, leading the Rainbow Wahine to a 25-18 set victory.

 

The Rainbow Wahine scored the first point of the fifth set before USC went on to score the next six points, taking a commanding 6-1 advantage. Hawai'i pulled back within three on a few occasions, the last being at 9-6. But the Trojans had one last run in them, scoring five-straight points to get to match point at 14-6. UH held it off with a kill by Chanteal Satele before USC's 16th block of the match ended it 15-7.

 

Hawai'i hosts their final non-conference tournament next week, facing San Diego State, UC Irvine and St. Mary's from Sept. 9-11.