Hawai‘i and Stanford again found a way to fast-forward through the opposition, setting up a showdown in tomorrow’s final of the 15th annual Honolulu Advertiser Volleyball Challenge.

The sixth-ranked Rainbow Wahine (6-2) blew through Texas-San Antonio, 25-15, 25-9, 25-14, in tonight’s late match, after the 10th-ranked Cardinal (5-2) blitzed Weber State, 25-16, 25-20, 25-16. The second round was watched by 3,573 at Stan Sheriff Center.
Hawai‘i and Stanford play for the championship at 7 p.m. tomorrow, following the UTSA-Wildcat match. The ‘Bows are going for their 13th Challenge title, while the Cardinal won in its last appearance, three years ago.
The Rainbows ripped kills at a .500 hitting rate against San Antonio, a night after Stanford was 54 points better. Freshman Brittany Hewitt and sophomore Kanani Danielson each had 10 kills for UH. Hawai‘i used 13 players and got kills from nine, with all but two hitting at least .400.
In contrast, the Roadrunners (3-7) hit for a negative percentage in the second set and .068 for the night, getting seven kills from freshman Whitney Walls.
Stanford found itself in an 11-8 hole in the opening set against Weber State (1-8), but scored 17 of the last 22 points and trailed only once the rest of the match.
After hitting .554 with just one error Thursday, the Cardinal hit .319 last night. It was led by junior Cassidy Lichtman with 10 kills, while Stephanie Browne and Hayley Spelman each had seven in just two sets. The Wildcats, who have lost their last six, got 11 kills from Jenna Legat.
As of yesterday afternoon, 6,732 tickets had been sold for the final night. Stanford coach John Dunning does not expect much resemblance to his team’s three-set blitz of Hawai‘i in December’s NCAA regional.
“Hawaii is a lot different than they were last year too,” said Dunning, who lost two first-team All-Americans from last season. “We’re really different. There are some similarities, but I think there are as many differences, just in personnel.”