Techsters not easy for Wahine

RUSTON, La. » It may have been hard to take this one seriously.

The site was a partitioned intramural gym with five rows of bleachers on one side, one scoreboard behind the benches and suspended basketball backboards that hung low enough to keep balls in play off caroms.

The opponent hadn't won a Western Athletic Conference match since late in 2005 and had never taken a game off Hawaii.

Last night, it took a while for the 13th-ranked Rainbow Wahine to get down to business in their first road contest of the season. Led by Jamie Houston's 22 kills and a record-setting serving run by Aneli Cubi-Otineru, Hawaii defeated Louisiana Tech for the 10th straight time, 23-30, 30-12, 30-19, 30-25.

It took 1 hour and 58 minutes in the Lambright Intramural Center for Hawaii to improve to 9-3, 3-0 in the WAC. The Wahine know it will take a much better effort if they want to prevail against No. 25 New Mexico State (11-2, 3-0) in Las Cruces, N.M., tomorrow.

"We started off pretty well and then we weren't real focused," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "But you have to give (LaTech) credit. They dug everything we hit at them.

"We settled into a rhythm and then they started to play better again (in Game 4). Jamie came up big when we needed her, especially at the end.

"We'll take the win."

It took an impressive outing by Houston at the end of Game 4 to finish off the Lady Techsters (5-11, 0-3). She had Hawaii's final six kills, including four in a row that gave the Wahine match point at 29-24.

Houston, whose relatives and friends made up a solid portion of the 117 spectators, was also in on four blocks with seven digs. Cubi-Otineru added a double-double (15 kills, 15 digs) and had two of the Wahine's five aces.

One of Cubi-Otineru's aces came during her school-record serving run in Game 2. It was 13-11 when she went back to serve; it was 28-11 when she was finished.

Hawaii had another critical serving run in helping win Game 3. Sophomore setter Stephanie Brandt served for nine points as the Wahine broke an 11-11 tie to take a 20-11 lead.

Hawaii outdug LaTech 61-48, led by Elizabeth Ka'aihue's 23. The Wahine were outblocked 14-11 -- 8-2 in Game 1 -- with junior hitter Tara Hittle in on six and senior middle Juliana Sanders five.

Sophomore hitter Samantha Crowder led LaTech with nine kills and Kara Jones had eight kills to match her eight blocks. Junior setter Jill Walker had a team-high 12 digs to go with her 31 assists.

Prior to last night, the Wahine had swept the Lady Techsters in their nine previous meetings.