A brutal volleyball non-conference season ended with ease as fourth-ranked Hawai‘i swept 25th-ranked Pepperdine for the second night in a row.

A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 4,413 watched the Rainbow Wahine (9-2) win their fifth in a row, 25-17, 25-17, 25-17.
UH went 6-2 against ranked opponents in the preseason. They open their Western Athletic Conference schedule at home Thursday against Boise State.
It was the Waves’ (7-5) fourth loss in their last five matches. They hit just .100 against Hawai‘I and were led by senior Rachel Grochmal’s eight kills.
The Rainbows got 11 kills from Kanani Danielson and Aneli Cubi-Otineru nearly had her third double-double (nine kills, 12 digs).
Hawai‘I was hitting nearly .300 until a disman final set. It broke to a 7-2 advantage in the third and nearly gave it all away before Cubi-Otineru served five in a row, including two aces, to put her team up 21-14.
Hawai‘i scored seven straight points in the opener to break open a close set and race to a 23-15 advantage. Jayme Lee served the final five with Cubi-Otineru burying the last three kills. She had seven of the ‘Bows’ 16 in the set and took twice as many swings as any other UH hitter.
Amber Kaufman began to make her presence felt in the second set, serving six straight — the last two aces — to give the ‘Bows a 6-1 lead. The Waves never got closer than three the rest of the way and Kaufman ended it, getting her first two blocks in the final seven serves.

NOTES

Seventh-ranked UCLA lost for the second straight night, getting swept by Long Beach State. Sixth-ranked Michigan also was swept by an unranked opponent, falling to Oregon State.
The ‘Bows open their Western Athletic Conference season by hosting Boise State Thursday and Idaho Sunday. Hawai‘i’s first road trip takes it to Louisiana Tech (Oct. 1) and New Mexico State (Oct. 3).
UH coach Dave Shoji is now 993-175-1 in his 35th season. If the Rainbow Wahine win out, he would hit No. 1000 on Oct. 14 against LaTech, at Stan Sheriff Center.