Playing well enough to win, but just barely, fourth-ranked Hawai'i opened the 22nd annual Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic with a 25-21, 25-23, 19-25, 25-15 victory over 19th-ranked Saint Louis last night. A crowd of 4,048 at Stan Sheriff Center watched the Rainbows (4-0) remain unbeaten heading into tomorrow's showdown with second-ranked Texas.

Kanani Danielson (19 kills) and Aneli Cubi-Otineru (16) again anchored the Hawai'i attack, with Cubi-Otineru adding 13 digs for her second double-double of the season. UH middle Amber Kaufman collected seven blocks — as many as she had all last week.

SLU (2-2) has lost to the country's No. 1 (Penn State) and No. 4 teams in consecutive matches, dropping its record to 2-22 against ranked teams.

The Billikens were led by Bridget Fonke (18 kills) and Sammi McCloud (15), two of their four starting seniors. McCloud became the program's first All-American (third team) last season after SLU upset Stanford early and won its first NCAA Tournament match.

Saint Louis returns all but one starter and has its highest ranking in history, and toughest schedule. The Nittany Lions might have made SLU just another notch on their NCAA-record 67-match winning streak and Hawai'i needed just 20 minutes to polish off the fourth set last night, but both teams came out bruised by the Billikens.

"They didn't run a conventional offense. It was all 'second tempo,' ..." UH coach Dave Shoji said. "They are just difficult to line up on and when we did get the block formed we couldn't dig the ball on a consistent basis. They were tough to stop, just a little unorthodox, but they're a good team."

And the Billikens never quit coming, until Hawai'i finally made a "huge statement," according to SLU coach Anne Kordes, by opening the final set with an 11-2 blitz.

"When we got the lead in the third and pulled away a little bit he sat Kanani, (Stephanie) Ferrell, all those players," Kordes said. "Even that 5- or 10-minute rest was nice. I thought in my mind, 'Uh oh, these girls have been sitting on the bench just waiting for the fourth game and they came out and exploded on us. We couldn't dig Kanani for the first five swings she took. I thought that was a huge difference."

Huge momentum shifts marked every other set. Hawai'i had six more kills and hit 160 points higher in the opener and still struggled to win it. Ferrell, a first-year starter, buried six kills in that set but she would have just three more the rest of the night.

Behind Fonke, SLU broke to a 13-9 advantage in Set 2. The Rainbows tied it at 15. They would trade points to 21 before Stephanie Brandt came in to serve Hawai'i into a 23-21 lead.

Brandt missed her next serve, but the Billikens missed their third straight to put UH at set point. After SLU's sixth stuff, Danielson got it with her sixth kill of the set. Cubi-Otineru also had six kills as did Fonke.

The Rainbow Wahine couldn't shake Saint Louis in the third. It led by as much as 17-11 and clung to the advantage with McCloud drilling six of her kills.

"It can go both ways," Kordes said. "For us, we've got to leave it on the floor or we're going home. For them, you're up 2-0 and you tend to coast after that little 10-minute break. It was a nice combination of them sitting back a little bit and us realizing we didn't want to go home yet. We were giving it everything we had."

But it was over soon after, with Brandt serving eight straight to give Hawai'i its big fourth-set advantage. The backup setter came up with three aces and seven digs and was instrumental in 'Bow surges as a backrow sub.

"Brandt was terrific tonight," Shoji said. "She played her role exactly how we want her to — serve tough, play great defense."

"And," UH libero Liz Ka'aihue added, "she brought great energy."

Texas (3-0) bounced back from a poor start to knock off 10th-ranked California, 21-25, 25-20, 25-16, 25-13, in the opener. Seven kills from All-American Hana Cutura lifted the Golden Bears (2-2) in the opening set, but the Longhorns' big block silenced Cal's offense with eight second-set stuffs and Texas began to dominate.

It was the first meeting between the teams since 1992.

Texas senior Ashley Engle, a two-time All-American at right-side hitter, came close to perfection at her new setting position. She dropped 12 kills on 20 errorless swings, added 32 assists and was in on three of Texas' 20 blocks.

Destinee Hooker, the 'Horns' other returning first-team All-American, contributed 17 kills and five stuffs, and Juliann Faucette rallied in the final set to get 15 kills. Punahou graduate Sydney Yogi had seven digs as a defensive substitute.

Cutura (16) and sophomore Tarah Murrey (12) were responsible for 62 percent of Cal's kills, but also had 17 of its 29 hitting errors.

NOTES

There are no matches today. The tournament continues tomorrow with Cal and Saint Louis playing at 5 p.m., followed by UH and Texas. Sunday, SLU and Texas play at 3 p.m., and Cal and Hawai'i at approximately 5 p.m.

Former Hawai'i setter Jennifer Carey is Cal's Director of Volleyball Operations.