October 30, 2015
Rainbow Warriors 3 – Highlanders 1
It was a 10 p.m. PT start for the UC Riverside volleyball team in their road matchup against conference powerhouse and 6th ranked team in the nation, Hawai’i. To suggest that this late start played a major role in the Highlanders’ performance would be unfair to both sides, however, the box score does display a greater level of energy from the Rainbow Warriors early on in this one.
The first two sets were taken pretty decisively by the Warriors as each saw them get out to early 10-5 leads and resulted in a win (25-15 and 25-16, respectively) without much resistance from the blue and gold.
That made for two sets dropped on the road to a conference powerhouse, the Highlanders seemed outmatched. However, UCR responded with surprising resilience in the third set as they jumped out to an early 10-5 lead, forced the Rainbow Wahine into three errors and their first timeout of the set. The break had little effect on the Highlanders surge, though, as they extended their lead to 18-10 before eventually taking the set 25-18 on the heels of two consecutive Alex Urbach kills.
The Highlanders followed this set with equally strong play in the fourth, where they found themselves ahead 13-7 with a legitimate shot to force a fifth and final set. Yet just as quickly as the lead was gained, any remaining faith disappeared as the Rainbow Wahine handily took control of the match with a nine-point run to lead the fourth, 16-14. From there, despite a formidable challenge posed by the Highlanders, Hawai’i took the set, 25-23 and the match, 3-1.
This loss is eerily familiar to last season’s match against Hawai’i where the Highlanders also managed to earn a set but nevertheless fell by a score of 3-1. In a season that has been heavily defined by moral victories as opposed to actual ones, the competitive nature UCR showed on the road against the nation’s sixth-best team can certainly be among the highlights. As of this writing, the Highlanders have six matches left on their slate, the first of which will be at home against CSU Northridge on Tuesday, November 3 at 7 p.m.
