ESPN Honolulu Rainbow Wahine play-by-play voice Tiff Wells with his six biggest takeaways from the previous week for the Bows

1 – First Strong Start. The slow starts for Hawai`i from Week 1 showed up again to begin Week 2 as in the blink of eye, the Bows trailed 16-5 en route to a 25-15 set loss against the Waves. Nine hitting errors plagued UH as Pepperdine outhit the Bows .353 to .083. Less than 24 hours later, fans were treated to the best opening set for UH this season as Tayli Ikenaga got on a 6-0 run for an early 7-1 UH lead in Set 1. With the set tied at 10, the Bows closed it out on a 15-6 extended run to take the frame 25-16. The Hawai`i offense hit .394 as Caylen Alexander notched six of the team’s 17 kills in the frame. Marking UH’s first opening set victory of the season, the Rainbow Wahine carried that momentum into the second set for a 25-22 victory and a commanding 2-0 match lead.

2 – Adjustments Made. Night one for Hawai`i against Pepperdine saw 36 hitting errors and a hitting percentage of .153 (62-36-170). Against a much taller front line, UH was blocked 11 times for the match. Even with 23 kills, Alexander hit .131 (25-15-61) while Stella Adeyemi hit .000 (11-11-40). After a day of film watching, UH hit for a season-high .259 (67-19-185). Nearly cutting the hitting errors in half, the offense continued to hammer away, going high hands and hitting off the side of the block. Alexander scored 25 kills (third 20-plus kill match this season) and had just eight hitting errors on 57 swings (hit .298). Adeyemi went career, recording 13 kills on 27 swings with just three hitting errors. After a strong spring season, Jacyn Bamis added a career-high 11 kills. Not to be outdone, Tali Hakas entered double-figure kills for a second-straight match with 10. Also for night two, the Rainbow Wahine started the match (and every set thereafter) with a more defensive backrow as Victoria Leyva earned her first career start in place of Stella Adeyemi and helped to shore up both the passing and floor defense at the beginning of each set.

3 – Can You Dig It. A staple of the program has been ball control and floor defense. UH out dug Pepperdine 71-60 on night one, led by Ikenaga’s career-high 27 dig performance. Kate Lang also added 12 in that tough five set loss. In the second match, the Bows recorded 20 of their 99 team digs in that the set. Five Hawai`i players recorded 12 or more digs. Alexander tied her career-high of 16 while Ikenaga established a new career-high of 33. It’s the most digs in Hawai`i history since Tita Akiu’s 34 against Baylor back in November of 2018. Again, UH out dug the Waves, this time by 16 (99-83).

4 – Mili 1.0. With losing both starting middles to graduation a year ago, that position group had a lot of question marks and inexperience entering 2024. And when your Head Coach compares your physicality to one of the best to ever play at UH, referencing “Amber 2.0,” expectations are set high. Wanting to be herself while modeling pieces of what Amber Igiede showed during her All-America career, Miliana Sylvester continues to own that second middle position for the Bows. Against a very tall Pepperdine block, the University Lab alumna nearly went double-double on night one, recording nine kills and nine blocks. Six more kills on 23 errorless swings during the second match against Pepperdine on Saturday, Sylvester continues to provide offense through the middle and on the step-out. Through two weeks, Sylvester is averaging 1.53 kills per set, hitting .225 and is tied with her counterpart Jacyn Bamis for total blocks (13) and blocks per set (.68).

5 – Closing Time. With the first match going five sets for a total of two hours and 51 minutes, UH took a 2-0 match lead into the break in match #2. Pepperdine then won sets three and four as for a second straight night, the Bows and Waves would play a five set match. Playing the maximum 10 sets in this two-match series and with a combined match time well into the fifth hour, what kind of stamina was left for either team? Having lost the fifth set a night ago where UH was outhit .238 to .100, the Bows saved their best for last. Six of the 15 points were kills from Caylen Alexander and as a team, UH went 10-1-21 to hit .429 in the set. Pepperdine was held to a .208 hitting percentage (7-2-24) while siding out at 46% (7-of-15) off first ball contact. UH went 7-of-9 (77%) off first ball contact. Leading 8-7 at the side switch, the Bows ended the match on a 7-2 scoring run. Freshman Victoria Leyva was key from the service line as UH went on a 5-0 scoring run to extend the lead from 8-7 to 13-8.

6 – 3-1 After Week 2. After losing key starters from 2023 to graduation and seeing the tough 2024 non-conference schedule, many were curious to see not only where the offense would come from (aside from Caylen Alexander) but how the team would fare prior to conference play. With RPI in mind as the coaching staff pieced together the first four weeks of the season, the schedule was daunting. Two-time defending national champion (Texas), preseason Top 25 (Baylor), preseason conference favorites (Pepperdine, Texas State), Power 4 (SMU), perennial upper echelon Group of 5 (San Diego) and a former Power 4 (Oregon St) along with UNLV, the schedule is tough. Helping to prepare the team for conference and trying to bolster the resume, three quality and hard-fought wins (one being a Power 4 win over SMU that just beat No. 2 Nebraska earlier in the week) has the team sitting at 3-1. Week 3 sees UH hosting three matches in five days ahead of its first road-trip of the season. Also of note, Big West Conference teams went 14-18 in Week 1. Week 2 was much improved for the mid-major conference, going 17-12.