Rainbow Wahine open Mountain West play with sweep over New Mexico

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The University of Hawaii women’s volleyball team made an impressive debut in the Mountain West.

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The ‘Bows down New Mexico in a straight-set sweep.

“I mean, as a team, like we want this so much, we’ve been ready, we’ve been every preseason game, every practice that’s been leading up to this moment, conference,” said Cameron Holcomb. “I mean, we’re here to win it.”

It was an offensive onslaught, Tali Hakas had a match-high 17 kills while Panna Ratkai rattled off four straight aces. However, head coach Joshua Walker said their performance slipped in the final set.

“I think our serve receive kind of broke down in that last set and that’s something that we’ve been one of our strengths,” Walker said. “So we just had to make sure that we steadied out, we got to make sure we pass better tomorrow night to continue to play well.”

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Friday also saw the return of Chalei Reid.

“She struggled a little bit, she has to continue to be confident in hitting high and then it’s kind of finding the open deep spots of the court,” Walker said. “Like when it’s open, she wants to rip it down, but she’s swinging it at where peaceable space defense is a little bit, so we’ll just kind of make sure she knows what spots are open and then hopefully she continues to develop.”

The ‘Bows are back home Saturday night for their hana hou match against the Lobos.

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Coverage on K5 begins at 6:30 p.m. Hawaii time.