By Tiff Wells.

December 11, 2015. One of just three unseeded teams (Illinois and LMU being the other two) to win their subregional the week before, the Rainbow Wahine flew to Iowa for the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Their Regional Semifinal opponent in the Des Moines Regional? Seventh-seeded and two-time defending national champion Penn State. This regional semifinal match also featured the two winningest head coaches, Russ Rose for Penn State and Dave Shoji for UH. Not many pundits gave the Rainbow Wahine much of a chance in this match. The Bows struck first, winning set 1, 25-22. Two Penn State set points were held off by UH and the Bows stole set 2, 27-25 p, after a kill by Tai Manu-Olevao. Set three was the statement. UH put together two separate 5-0 runs to lead 12-4. A Penn State hitting error gave UH the third set, 25-16, the 3-0 match victory and their 24th win in a row. Nikki Taylor led the way for UH in the upset with a match-high 18 kills and 8 digs. Manu-Olevao added 14 kills to hit .500. Olivia Magill put down 9 kills and hit .474. Hawai‘i hit .389 for the match that was, and still is UH’s first-ever win over Penn State. UH went on to finish the season at 29-2, leading the nation with a .935 win percentage.

To watch this historic victory here:

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