Kamana‘o sets record as UH defeats Nevada

The Rainbow Wahine and the Aggies remain tied atop the conference standings

RENO, Nev. » All season long, the Hawaii women's volleyball team has learned to make do without.

Last night, No. 16 Hawaii won without the offense of kill leader Jamie Houston for most of the match against Nevada. The sophomore left-side hitter had one of the poorest nights of her career, hitting negative .029, and tied her season-low 10 kills, but the Wahine walked out of Virginia Street Gym with two positives:

» a 30-24, 30-24, 30-23 victory over the Wolf Pack in 100 minutes that kept them tied for first in the Western Athletic Conference standings with No. 23 New Mexico State;

» and the new WAC career leader in assists in senior setter Kanoe Kamana'o.

Hawaii (18-5, 10-1) also got 13 kills from senior Sarah Mason and 12 kills and six blocks from junior Juliana Sanders in defeating Nevada for the 26th consecutive time.

"It was good to be able to win without Jamie having to carry us," Wahine coach Dave Shoji said. "For us to win without her doing that is a good sign. Fortunately, we had other people step it up.

"Juliana went hard the whole night, stepped it up big and got a bunch of key sideouts. And Kanoe ... she struggled a bit with her location early but made the adjustments. I assumed she would have the (assist) record. She's obviously one of the all-time greats."

Kamana'o broke the WAC record with her fifth assist, on what would be Houston's second and final kill of Game 1, giving the Wahine a 14-12 lead. She added 30 more assists after that, putting her at 5,904, 26th all-time on the NCAA chart, had three of the team's six aces and was in on five of the 12 blocks.

"I thought we were fortunate to win Game 1 not playing our best ball," Shoji said, his team hitting .071 in the opening 40 minutes but finishing at .234.

But as poor as Hawaii was playing, Nevada (14-10, 8-4) was playing worse, hitting .025 in Game 1, .103 for the match. The Wolf Pack threw a 6-2 system (two setters) at the Wahine as well as using multiple substitutions for the first two games before going back to a single setter for Game 3.

Hawaii also changed its lineup slightly, giving sophomore defensive specialist Elise Duggins her first career start. She finished with eight digs, second behind libero Jayme Lee's 11.

Houston, the admitted focus of Nevada's blocking game plan, had nine errors and two kills on 14 swings in Game 1. She came back with eight kills on 21 attempts in the final two games, committing two errors late in Game 3.

The Wahine's next match is at Utah State (12-14, 5-7) tomorrow (5 p.m. Hawaii time).