After possibly the worst match in Rainbow Wahine volleyball's celebrated history, 16th-ranked Hawai'i rallied with a vengeance last night to hold off 25th-ranked Kansas State, 34-32, 30-26, 25-30, 31-29, in the opening round of the 20th annual Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Classic.

In the first match, fifth-ranked UCLA (2-1) ran away from Louisville (3-1) at the end of the first two games, then dominated the third in a 30-24, 30-27, 30-21 victory. Juniors Ali Daley (14 kills) and Kaitlin Saither (12) provided nearly half of the Bruin offense and 6-foot-6 Jana Matiasovska (15 kills) had nearly half of the Cardinals' kills.

Then, before 4,544 at Stan Sheriff Center, Hawai'i (2-2) came out looking absolutely nothing like the team that was simply awful Sunday while being swept by Oregon State. With freshman libero Liz Ka'aihue and junior captain Tara Hittle anchoring much-improved passing, and Aneli Cubi-Otineru and Jamie Houston taking turns terrorizing the Wildcat block, the Rainbows returned to the world of ranked teams — a place they looked like they didn't belong just five days earlier.

"We weren't playing tentative — trying not to make a mistake," Ka'aihue said. "We were just playing our game, having fun. I never felt stressed the whole game. When we were down ... we've become a team that trusts each other. I didn't find myself worried at all."

How they did that so soon after Sunday's meltdown was somewhat miraculous. Not that last night was perfect — far from it. But from the first moment, UH was coming after K-State and neither team backed down.

Despite being out-hit (.183-.145) and out-blocked (17-15), the 'Bows blasted through a team that won its first four, opening the season with an upset of then-No. 14 Cal Poly. The Wildcats, 10th in the Big 12 a year ago, now revolve around junior Nataly Korobkova, a 6-foot-3 transfer from State Siberian Technological University and Russia's junior national team.

She swatted 24 kills last night, but it was her 13 errors, 20 missed K-State serves and a reinvigorated Rainbow Wahine team that ultimately decided this one.

"Twenty service errors is a big deal," Wildcat coach Suzie Fritz said. "They gave us plenty of opportunities. We were making plenty of errors, they were making plenty of errors. The truth of the matter is, it wasn't pretty volleyball either way, but in the end we made too many consecutive errors."

The Rainbow Wahine have been there, much of last weekend. Hawai'i showed up early this time and brought its passing and blocking with it. The Rainbows ripped to a 12-3 advantage in Game 1 behind a block that bothered the Wildcats, who had seven hitting errors in their first 15 swings.

They composed themselves and began cutting into the deficit — something they would do successfully much of the night. K-State caught UH at 25. By then, both teams were out of timeouts and Otineru — who finished the game with six kills in nine swings — was the only reason UH was not hitting negative.

The game would be tied five more times, with kills by Otineru and Juliana Sanders erasing K-State game points, and Houston and Hittle missing serves to erase UH game points. Finally, Ka'aihue got a serve in and Gregory and Houston stuffed Korobkova, who had four errors to go with five kills in the game.

She and Otineru switched fortunes to start Game 2. Korobkova blasted four of her team's first five kills and Otineru missed her first five swings as the Wildcats pulled ahead 18-15. The 'Bows came back to tie it at 19 behind Houston, who drilled nine kills in the game. There would be six more ties before Hawai'i hammered out the last five points with Gregory serving.

Hawai'i reverted to Sunday's frightening form in Game 3. It served into the bottom of the net, sprayed spikes everywhere but in, and sometimes simply lost concentration. Kansas State quickly scored the first five points and stretched its advantage to eight (24-16) before the 'Bows were able to focus more than a point at a time. Korobkova's focus improved; she was 8 for 15 in the game, with just one error. In contrast, Hawai'i had 11 kills as a team, with nine errors.

But the 'Bows rebounded again. They pulled ahead 12-8 in Game 4, thanks in part to three more missed Wildcat serves. Then K-State's other hitter, Hungarian Rita Liliom, brought her team back to 14-all. After 11 more ties, Houston's 24th kill gave Hawai'i match point (29-28).

Liliom's 20th kill erased it, but then Houston shoved a free ball down with her left hand. UH setter Stephanie Brandt, who had half the 'Bows' eight aces, forced a poor pass from K-State and ultimately set Otineru, whose 13th kill ended it after 2 hours and 29 minutes.

"I felt really good about how we were playing and I probably would have felt OK with a loss," UH coach Dave Shoji said. "But it really feels good to win."

NOTES

The Classic continues today with Louisville and Kansas State playing at 2 p.m. in the SSC. Hawai'i plays the Cardinals tomorrow, at about 5 p.m., following a 2:30 p.m. match between UCLA and K-State.

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com.