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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Kanoe Kamana'o and Victoria Prince of the Rainbow Wahine blocked a Cincinnati kill attempt during last night's win.

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Rainbow Wahine waste
no time pulling even

UH sweeps past Cincinnati in its
Waikiki Beach Marriott opener
to improve its record to .500

Getting to .500 never felt so good.

HAWAII 3 CINCINNATI 0 NEXT UP vs. Northridge tonight

After losing as many matches in the last two weeks as it had over the past two years, No. 7 Hawaii evened its record last night by simply overwhelming Cincinnati. The Rainbow Wahine had eight players with three kills or more, led by senior Susie Boogaard's 15, in dispatching the Bearcats in 90 minutes, 30-21, 30-17, 30-22, at the Stan Sheriff Center

A turnstile crowd of 3,989 (6,251 tickets) saw Hawaii (3-3) run its Waikiki Beach Marriott record to 30-1, helped in part by 13 1/2 blocks and three players in double figures. The Wahine take a modest two-match winning streak into tonight's meeting with Cal State Northridge (2-5).

The Matadors (2-5) were swept by No. 10 UCLA in 84 minutes in yesterday's first match, 30-21, 30-20, 30-26. The Bruins (4-0) take on the Bearcats (1-3) today at 4:30 p.m.

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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARBULLETIN.COM Juliana Sanders had five kills for the Rainbow Wahine during last night's sweep of Cincinnati at the Stan Sheriff Center.

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Hawaii coach Dave Shoji used 15 of his 16 players and a seeming equal number of lineups. Part of it was by design to throw off being scouted -- "I told Andy (UCLA coach Banachowski) we'd use six or seven lineups before we saw him," Shoji said -- and part was to give all of his players a chance at some court time with the match well in hand.

"All of our players deserved to play, they've worked hard in the practice gym, and we had the opportunity to do it," Shoji said. "I'm not sure if anyone earned more playing time, but it seemed that everyone who went in did something good the first time they touched the ball.

"I think our block was really on tonight. We've really worked on that in practice. I feel like we handled a pretty decent team tonight."

Cincinnati coach Reed Sunahara felt manhandled at times.

"We knew they would be good, but I think they played their best match of the year tonight," said Sunahara, a Hilo native. "Whoever Dave put in did a good job. I'm proud of my team. We played better than the score indicated.

"At times we were right there with them and then we weren't. We thought we had enough information on them, but obviously we didn't. They kept us off-balance."

Hawaii's block held Cincinnati to a .088 hitting percentage. The Wahine hit .323 as a team, with sophomore Kari Gregory (4-0-6) and freshman Nickie Thomas (3-0-4) combining for seven kills and no errors in Game 3.

It was so balanced that senior Ashley Watanabe, playing libero, hit a free ball over that resulted in her first kill in 78 matches and 5-4 lead.

"Ashley did great," Boogaard said. "She's a great hitter. We see in practice.

"It's nice to know that everyone on our bench can play well. This gives a lot of confidence. It's a great feeling to know our team can play a full match like we did."

Maria Pongonis led Cincinnati with 13 kills.

UCLA 3, CSUN 0

The match didn't take much longer than the 27-mile drive between the two campuses during heavy traffic on I-405 in Los Angeles.

Junior middle Nana Meriwether had 13 kills with no errors in 20 swings, hitting an outrageous .650, to keep UCLA undefeated. Freshman hitter Kaitlin Sather added 10 kills and 12 digs for the Bruins, who rallied from a 21-18 deficit in Game 3 to close out the match with a 12-5 run.

Middle Val Kepler, one of nine freshmen on the Matadors' travel roster, finished with a team-high 12 kills.

"We played well at times, but I'd like to see that happen earlier in the match," CSUN coach Jeff Stork said. "It's a young group. They might be a little young to handle UCLA and even Hawaii. Every match, we just want to get better.

"With nine freshmen, no returning starters, we're learning in leaps and bounds. We need to learn to be steady. We have a few tapes on Hawaii and know they have way more interchangeable parts than we do, much like UCLA.

"Right now, I'm not worried about a UCLA or a Hawaii. We need our young players to get to know each other and how to play together."

Notes: Tonight's meeting with CSUN is the first for Hawaii since 1995, a match in which the Matadors scored only 10 points in a quick sweep (15-2, 15-3, 15-5). The Wahine lead the series 11-0. ... Sunahara, a UCLA graduate, will face his alma mater for the first time as a head coach today.

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Hawaii def. Cincinnati

30-21, 30-17, 30-22

Bearcats (1-3, 0-1 WBMC)
	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Custer	3	8	3	24	.208	0	1	5
Olson	3	2	2	5	.000	1	0	5
Nevitt	3	3	1	20	.100	1	1	0
Pongonis	3	13	10	44	.068	0	0	12
Hellsten	3	4	3	14	.071	0	0	0
Maldo	3	4	4	18	.000	1	0	8
Zenz	3	0	0	0	.000	0	0	20
Totals	3	34	23	125	.088	3	2	50
Rainbow Wahine (3-3, 1-0 WBMC)
	g	k	e	att	pct.	bs	ba	d
Sanders	2	5	3	10	.200	0	3	0
Boogaard	3	15	2	35	.371	1	1	13
Kamana'o	3	0	1	1	-1.000	1	2	12
Watanabe	3	1	0	1	1.000	0	0	4
Thurlby	3	4	1	12	.250	0	2	7
Prince	3	6	1	16	.312	0	4	1
Hittle	2	0	0	0	.000	0	0	10
Gregory	1	4	0	6	.667	0	3	1
Blood	2	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
Keefe	1	3	0	7	.429	1	1	0
Arnott	1	3	0	12	.250	0	0	1
Houston	2	9	5	19	.211	0	2	2
Thomas	1	3	0	4	.750	0	3	1
Ong	2	0	0	0	.000	0	0	2
Woolford	2	0	0	1	.000	0	0	3
Totals	3	53	13	124	.323	3	21	57

Key -- g: games; k: kills; e: hitting errors; att: attempts; pct.: hitting percentage; bs: block solos; ba: block assists; d: digs.
Aces -- UC (0). Hawaii (5): Ong 2, Arnott, Prince, Kamana'o. Assists -- UC (32): Olson 27, Custer 3, Pongonis, Zenz. Hawaii (50): Kamana'o 46, Thomas 2, Thurlby, Keefe.
T -- 1:30. Officials -- Wayne Lee, Ernest Ho. A -- 3,989.