Rainbow Wahine go the distance for their first win

Two matches in and a few things are already obvious. Some of them painfully obvious.

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This will not be a volleyball season for the faint of heart, nor for those who value their hair or getting home in time to watch the 10 p.m. news. It will be one where the best reference material for Hawaii fans will not be the program but rather a copy of R.L. Stevenson's "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde."

Because when the 10th-ranked Rainbow Wahine are good, they are very, very good. But when they're not, bad things can happen.

It didn't happen last night as Hawaii finished on the positive side of the scoreboard, pushing back Colorado State 30-21, 22-30, 27-30, 30-25, 15-13. A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,976 (6,600 tickets) saw the Wahine improve to 1-1 in the ASICS Invitational.

"As I told the team, we could be 2-0 at this point or 0-2 ... but we're 1-1," Hawaii coach Dave Shoji said. "Tonight we got that one sideout that we needed that we didn't get last night (Friday's loss to Michigan in five)."

What Shoji also got was a strong sense of deja vu. As happened against the Wolverines in Game 5, Hawaii had an 8-6 lead at the midway point when switching sides and Amber Kaufman's kill gave the Wahine match point at 14-12.

Unlike Friday, Hawaii bent but didn't break when CSU closed to 14-13.

"I think we learned from last night and it hurt to the core," said Kaufman, whose 12th kill ended it. "It was the same thing that happened Friday and I turned to the team and said, 'One point. Let's do it.' "

Jamie Houston, rebounding from her negative-hitting performance Friday, finished with a match-high 23 kills, becoming the 15th Wahine to reach the 1,000-kill mark. Juliana Sanders added 12 kills, hitting .688; her lone hitting error came in Game 5 when she was blocked on her 15th attempt.

Hawaii will try to extend its winning streak in today's 5 p.m. match against Oregon State.

In yesterday's first match, Michigan continued to make a strong bid for an appearance in the next coaches' Top 25 poll with a 92-minute 30-22, 30-26, 30-27 sweep of Oregon State. The Wolverines can win the tournament championship outright with a win over Colorado State in today's 3 p.m. match.

CSU (0-2) got 21 kills each from Jaime Strauss and Mekana Barnes.

Hawaii's revolving door got quite a workout, with 12 players seeing action and six starters finishing the match ... but not in the same positions they started. The biggest change was at libero, where sophomore Jayme Lee made key digs and had several assists when replacing freshman Elizabeth Ka'aihue in Game 2.

"I hope it won't be a revolving door this season," Shoji said, "but we'll go with the people who are hot. If they're not, they'll come out.

"I thought Stephanie (setter Brandt) made the right decisions at the end and that Amber stepped it up."

Kaufman did not start last night but finished strong.

"Personally I had to shake it (not starting) off and when I got in, take out my anger on the other team," she said.

Aneli Cubi-Otineru added 10 kills. Tara Hittle had a team-leading 15 digs.

Michigan 3, Oregon State 0

Odd to think that how the first play went so did the rest of the match. But such was the case with the Wolverines' sweep of the Beavers. Michigan had seven digs on the first rally with Beth Karpiak putting down what would be the first of her 11 kills.

Katie Bruzdzinki led the Wolverines with 13 kills while Veronica Rood added 10. Senior libero Stesha Selski had 20 of her team's digs and freshman setter Lexi Zimmerman continued her impressive debut with 40 assists, 10 digs and two blocks.

"She is a great setter," OSU coach Terry Liskevych said of Zimmerman. "And they played great defense."

Note: No. 1 Nebraska defeated No. 5 UCLA in the AVCA Showcase last night, 30-23, 22-30, 30-18, 30-21. The Bruins, who ended Hawaii's season in last year's regional final, will compete in the Hawaiian Airlines Classic next weekend.