Third-ranked Hawai'i ran into some bumps along the road last night, but held off Fresno State, 25-19, 23-25, 25-15, 25-20, in Western Athletic Conference volleyball.

The Rainbow Wahine's 15th straight win was watched by 4,132, a record for volleyball at Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif. They saw what UH coach Dave Shoji characterized as "probably our poorest performance of the year."

"They had a pretty simple game plan and we had problems timing our block. We just couldn't block," Shoji said. "We were out of sync the whole time. I'm not sure we were mentally ready. I think we were in cruise mentality."

Left-side hitters Kanani Danielson and Aneli Cubi-Otineru salvaged the UH offense. Danielson, a sophomore All-American, buried a match-high 22 kills. That included the night's final three points as she took over in a fourth set that was tied seven times.

She hit .445 and Cubi-Otineru added 13 kills and hit .407. No other Rainbow had more than seven kills. Libero Liz Ka'aihue had 19 digs.

In contrast, the Bulldogs were stunningly balanced. Sophomore Baylee Platt, their most prolific attacker, had a miserable night (0 kills, negative .466 hitting), but five teammates contributed at least nine kills.

"Fresno State is much improved. You've got to give them some credit," Shoji said. "On the other hand, we were not playing like we are capable of."

Hawai'i (19-2, 9-0 WAC) outhit the Bulldogs (11-11, 4-6) by nearly 300 points (.414-.118) in the opening set even while it struggled with its passing. The 'Bows finished it off with a 7-3 surge, then looked terrible to start Set 2.

Stephanie Ferrell, 3-for-6 without an error in the opening set, had three quick errors as Hawai'i fell behind 4-1. Fresno would stretch its advantage to 11-4 before the 'Bows rallied, tying it at 15 and finally taking a lead at 21-20. FSU called time, scored the next four points, then won when it stuffed Ferrell again.

It was only the third set Hawai'i has lost during this winning streak. It was the third time in three years the Bulldogs have taken a set off UH.

The Rainbow Wahine blitzed Fresno in the third set, surging ahead 16-6, then stumbled out of the gate in the fourth set, losing six of the first seven points.

This time, they rallied early, kept it close, then scored six of the last nine points behind Danielson.

"The whole team won the first game and thought it was going to happen easily in the second," Shoji said. "We started poorly and got the crowd into the match. We just struggled all night. The fourth set started out like the second. Kanani was there when we needed her and we started to play a little defense."

FSU, which has not beaten Hawai'i in 45 tries now, plays the 'Bows again at the Stan Sheriff Center next Friday. Hawai'i continues its trip tomorrow at Nevada and Monday at San Jose State.

"Obviously, we want to have a little more sense of urgency," Shoji said. "I think that was missing tonight. Then we got rattled when they won Game 2. Rattled and flustered, but it was good we were able to come back."

NOTE

Fresno State's first televised match did not go over well in Hawai'i. Oceanic Time Warner Cable, which showed the match on digital station ESPNU, had an extremely high volume of calls due to problems with cable boxes, according to a customer representative. That left many subscribers watching a black screen. The callback time for cable problems was more than 2 hours.