Wahine volleyball takes down Aztecs, Soccer ties Ball St.

Hawaii takes down Aztecs in four

In another full weekend of Hawaii athletics, the Hawaii Rainbow Wahine volleyball team came back to defeat a good San Diego State(5-1) team 22-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-15 in the opening night of the Verizon Challenge. It was the first defeat for the Aztecs this season after starting 5-0 with a win against Cal who beat the Wahine last week.

Hawaii(6-1) got off to a rocky start again and was up late in the first set only to lose it from a 12-5 run by the Aztecs. In set two again Hawaii was down early 5-1 and called a timeout to regroup. They made some adjustments like not serving to the SDSU's libero Kristi Jackels. She dug up everything and set up nice passes to give the Aztecs some easy plays. But when they didn't serve to Jackels, Hawaii had the advantage creating poor passes and setting up for double blocks.

Jane Croson led the Wahine with 21 kills. Ali Longo led the 'Bows with 22 digs and Emily Hartong added nine kills and seven digs.  Jade Vorster had some troubles in set one and two hitting into the blocks and not connecting sometimes with setter Mita Uiato. She did have 6 key blocks to give Hawaii some momentum to win the last three sets. Kaela Goodman (6 kills, 4 blocks) helped UH get some momentum as well.

Summer Nash led the Aztecs with 21 kills and Kristi Jackels had 23 recorded digs in this match.(It felt like she had more.)

Next up for the Wahine is the Vandals of Idaho. First serve is at 7pmHST.
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Hawaii ties against Ball State

Hawaii(4-1-2) had the lead in the first half when midfielder Krystal Pascua scored in the 28th minute with a strike from 25 meters.

UH was threatening all game until the 70th minute when the Cardinals started to turn on the offense and finally broke through with a putback score by Nicole Pembleton in the 80th minute. Ball State(3-2-1) was clearly the underdogs for this match traveling only 24 hours before the match to play in the Outrigger Hotels and Resorts Soccer Classic. The Wahine felt like they let a victory get away and will focus on the next task at hand with Detroit(2-3) on Sunday.

This will be a 5pm HST match and will end a six-match homestand before going on the road to play Washington State on September 14th.