Hawaii women’s volleyball sweeps Pepperdine

The Hawaii women’s volleyball team survived four match points in the opening set and then roared to its first sweep of the season, beating Pepperdine 27-25, 25-18, 25-21 tonight in the Outrigger Volleyball Challenge.

Sophomore Caylen Alexander had a match-high 15 kills and 11 digs and senior Riley Wagoner added 14 kills for Hawaii (5-2), which bounced back from its first loss of the season that went more than three sets on Thursday to Liberty.

A SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4.727 watched Hawaii overcome a 24-20 deficit in the first set with Wagoner serving four straight points with two aces to put UH in the lead.

A Tali Hakas dig that lined over the net and into no-mans land on the Pepperdine side of the net ended the first set and Hawaii took it to the Waves (1-6) from then on.

UH jumped to a 22-8 lead in the second set and led by as many as nine in the third before Pepperdine pulled closed to two points at 22-20.

Amber Igiede added eight kills and Tali Hakas hit .375 with seven kills for Hawaii, which hit a season-best .324.

Hawaii will close the tournament against UCLA (6-1), which swept Liberty in tonight’s first game.