Hawai’i win streak rolls to six straight behind Ratkai, efficient night of offense

Taking to the road for the first time this season, the University of Hawai’i women’s volleyball team looked right at home.

The Rainbow Wahine (7-2) opened up the Lucky Aces Women’s Volleyball Invitational with a dominant victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (2-6) on Friday night, hitting a season-high .471 as a group while sweeping through the Islanders in straight sets inside Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, (25-17, 25-13, 25-13).

Senior outside hitter Panna Ratkai continued her scorching-hot start to her UH career, leading the team in kills for the sixth straight match as she racked up 16 kills while hitting a season-best .556 against the Islanders.

Tali Hakas followed right behind her roommate as the junior outside hitter tallied eight kills and only one attacking error on the night. Hawai’i only recorded five attacking miscues as a team against TAMU-CC, the least amount of attack errors in a single match for the Rainbow Wahine since September of 2017 against Cal State Fullerton.

“Obviously, great performance overall,” head coach Joshua Walker said after the dominant win. “Started off a little slow from the service line but once that steadied out, I think we did a good job consistently throughout the night just executing what the scouting report was.”

The Rainbow Wahine seemingly got hands on every swing by Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, posting 9.0 blocks while the Islanders managed just 2.0 through the three frames. Already ranked among the top 25 in the nation for opponent attack percentage entering the night (.151), Hawai’i held TAMU-CC to a .099 hitting clip across the sweep.

Hawai’i started off slow, allowing TAMU-CC to jump out to a 5-3 lead before rattling off five straight points to force a timeout from the Islanders. The stoppage did little to slow the Rainbow Wahine back down, rolling to a 25-17 victory in the opening frame behind Maëli Cormier’s perfect five kills on five swings.

“I think it’s that sense of urgency and that mentality in which you’re not letting somebody off the hook,” Walker said after his team broke out of the slow start on the way to their sixth straight victory. “We kind of got rid of the plays that we’re shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit. So, when teams are struggling, we’ve been able to capitalize on it and we haven’t looked back.”

The Rainbow Wahine continued to push the throttle forward in the follow-up frame, jumping out to a 15-8 advantage by the media timeout in the second set. Ratkai moved into double figures in kills by the end of the stanza, sending down her 11th kill of the match to clinch a 2-0 lead over the Islanders for Hawai’i.

Well on their way to a third consecutive sweep, Hawai’i handled business again in the night’s final set as they raced to a nine-point advantage by the frame’s media timeout. The Rainbow Wahine pushed the advantage out to as large as 15 before taking five chances to wrap up the win.

Cormier closed out with seven kills on 10 swings for UH, adding a pair of blocks as she helped set the tone early for the tournament hosts. Miliani Sylvester continued her highly efficient start to her junior season, tacking on seven kills and three blocks of her own while hitting .455 for the Rainbow Wahine.

Freshman middle blocker Rachel Purser, who prepped at Coranado High School in Nevada before making her way to the islands, tallied five kills on six swings while recording a trio of digs and four blocks in her return to her home state.

TAMU-CC outside hitter Ally Saleh, who entered the weekend leading the team in kills (85), had a muted impact as the Rainbow Wahine defense held her to a season-low three kills on 13 attempts. Senior outside hitter Kenna Buchanan picked up the slack for the Islanders, hitting .500 while leading the way with eight kills on the night.

Hawai’i will be right back in action on Saturday afternoon, putting the six-match win streak on the line as they take on Iowa State at 1:30 p.m. HT. The Cyclones had a slow start of their own in the Lucky Aces Invitational, falling in straight sets in the day’s first match against UCLA.