Hawaii Is Sweet Sixteen Bound

After a Friday afternoon five set battle against TCU, the Rainbow Wahine took care of the 10th seeded Texas A&M. In a battle of Top 15 teams, the seventh ranked Hawaii swept 15th ranked Texas A&M by a score of 25-22, 25-19, 25-20. This match was between the SEC Champions and the Big West Champions with the Big West coming out on top.

Hawaii was led tonight by the 19 digs of libero Savanah Kahakai and 37 assists and two aces of setter Tayler Higgins. Outside hitter Kalei Greeley was steady as she had 10 kills and no errors for .625 hitting percentage. Opposite Nikki Taylor led both teams with 14 kills and had eight digs. Middle blockers Olivia Magill and Emily Maglio both hit over .300 and had ten and nine kills. Magill had five blocks as well.

Texas A&M end their season 24-7 while Hawaii is now at 28-1 and bring their winning streak to 23. The Bows will head to Des Moines, Iowa where they will play in the Sweet Sixteen against seventh seeded and eighth ranked Penn State.

*Note: A replay of this match is available on ESPN3

Recap

Hawaii Recap | Texas A&M Recap

Box Score (HTML)

Post Match Quotes

Hawaii vs. Texas A&M

After a stressful five-sit match in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament, Hawaii will be facing the 10th seed Texas A&M after beating TCU. Last night's scores went 17-25, 25-23, 23-25, 25-22, 15-13 ending the season for the at-large bid Horned Frogs (19-10). The long match ended in favor of the Rainbow Wahine as they came out victorious with multiple season and career highs. Middle blockers Olivia Magill and Emily Maglio upped their career high in kills with 19 and 13. Setter Tayler Higgins had a career high of 65 assists and outside hitter Kalei Greeley had a career high 17 digs. Overall opposite Nikki Taylor had a match-high 21 kills after a slow start in the match.

Now Hawaii will face Texas A&M as it is a Top 25 Match-up. The latest AVCA Poll had Hawaii ranked No. 7 while Texas A&M was ranked No. 15. After the Hawaii-TCU match, Texas A&M swept Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Aggies will be much more rested than the Wahine but it should be a tough match for each team.

Recaps
Hawaii Recap | TCU Recap
Box Score (HTML)
Hawaii Post Match Interview

Game Coverage
Time: 7:30 PM EST / 2:30 PM HST
Location: Reed Arena (College Station, TX)
Live Stream: ESPN3
Live Stats: Gametracker
Radio: ESPN1420

Hawaii to Seattle Regional

Selection Show Sunday

Credit: Hawaii Athletics

| NCAA Bracket | Hawaii Release |

The No.25 ranked Rainbow Wahine (21-6) waited patiently with the rest of the country for the reveal of the 2014 NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament Bracket. Despite the late running of a college basketball game, it was all revealed.

Hawaii will head up to Seattle, WA for the third time in five years to play in the Washington Sub-regional. They will play the Duke Blue Devils (22-7) from the ACC. The victor of this match will play the winner of the No.3 seed Washington-New Hampshire match.

The two seasons that Hawaii was sent to Washington in the NCAA Tournament, the Wahine fell in the second round each time to the Washington Huskies. They picked up first round wins against Portland State (2010) and Santa Clara (2012).

Bracket says Hawaii vs Duke will be at 8:00 PM ET (3:00 PM HT) followed by Washington vs New Hampshire at 10:00 PM ET (5:00 PM HT) on November 5th. No comments mentioned whether these matches will be televised or streamed. OCSports has televised the 2012 Tournament (however, technical difficulties occured) and K5 has televised the 2010 tournament. The Pac-12 Networks has streamed its first round matches last season along with televising the second round matches.

Duke Blue Devils
Record: 22-7 (14-4)
Series Record: *1st Meeting
Head Coach: Jolene Nagel (16th Year)
Top Players: Emily Sklar (So. OH), Jeme Obeime (Sr. OH), Sasha Karelov (So. L), Kelsey Williams (Sr. S)

Credit: NCAA

Tournament Bracket Review: Based on how the Wahine performed this season, I feel their draw is reasonable. They have no significant win or loss so it was very predictable that they would appear in Washington. IF Hawaii were to get by Duke who is a very tough team, they will have a chance at redemption against the Huskies. UW will beat New Hampshire but they have two starters out at the moment. Winners of that will most likely face Nebraska.

Side-Comments: It has been a while since I have posted (four months) and I apologize but pretty busy. However, not too busy for Wahine or NCAA Volleyball.