Second-ranked Texas spanked fourth-ranked Hawai‘i in the opening set, then outlasted the Rainbow Wahine in a 25-11, 25-22, 22-25, 25-11 victory tonight in the 22nd annual Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic.

The Longhorns moved to 4-0 before a season-high crowd of 7,615 at Stan Sheriff Center. The Rainbow Wahine dropped to 4-1.
They play their fifth consecutive ranked opponent tomorrow, taking on 10th-ranked California in the Classic finale at 5 p.m. Texas plays 19th-ranked Saint Louis at 3 p.m.
Hawai‘i had its most balanced attack of the year, with its worst attack percentage (.129). Stephanie Ferrell had a team-high 11 kills, with four hitters getting at least eight.
The Longhorns were led by Juliann Faucette with 18 kills. Senior All-Americans Destinee Hooker (12) and Ashley Engle (13) added 25 more, with Engle’s coming from her new setting position.
After a breathtaking rally on the opening serve, featuring five phenomenal digs on Hawai‘i’s side, the Longhorns dominated the first set. Hooker’s first kill put her on the service line and she launched four straight points. She forced two shanks that Engle buried, then blasted two aces that went into the net tape and fell on the UH side.
Texas would have six net serves crawl over in the first set as things went downhill quickly for the ‘Bows. The ball kept going straight down for the ‘Horns, particularly Faucett (6-for-8) and setter Engle (5-for-8), who had all but six of Texas’ kills and no errors.
The Longhorns led 12-3 by the time UH had used both its timeouts. Texas served so well that the Rainbow passing, which had been the best part of their game the first four matches, got burned over and over.
But the ‘Bows came back for more and Kanani Danielson blasted three kills and a block to lift them to a 9-4 advantage in Set 2. Texas kept hanging around, finally catching Hawai‘i at 20 and closing it out on Faucette’s fifth kill of the set and Rachael Adams’ first.
The ‘Horns called their second timeout in Set 3 after missing five serves — their first misses of the match — to fall into a 19-14 hole. This time Hawai‘i pushed on, vaulting to 24-18 when Aneli Cubi-Otineru drilled two aces and Faucette made the ‘Horns’ first hitting error of the set. Texas erased four set points before Danielson dropped her eighth kill of the night.
Texas seized the momentum early in the fourth to finish the ‘Bows off. UH called its first timeout down 11-4, with Faucette, Engle and Hooker taking over — again. There would be no comeback this time, with the Longhorns hitting .571 for the set and .383 for the match.
Saint Louis (3-2) continued to beat on the Bay Area in the opener. The Billikens, whose upset of Stanford a year ago introduced them to the Top 25, swept California, 25-20, 25-20, 25-22.
Saint Louis got 14 kills from Bridget Fonke — who hit .464 — and 12 from Megan Boken. The Billikens were blocked only three times and hit .296.
In contrast, the Golden Bears managed just a .208 hitting percentage. It would have been worse without All-American Hana Cutura, who had 17 of their 40 kills and hit .342.
Cal (2-3) has lost to UC Irvine, Texas and SLU this season.

NOTES

The ‘Bows play Weber State, Texas-San Antonio and 11th-ranked Stanford in next week’s Honolulu Advertiser Challenge (Sept. 10 to 12), then take on 21st-ranked Pepperdine Sept. 18 and 19 before starting the Western Athletic Conference season.
New Mexico State of the WAC was swept by Florida State Thursday and eighth-ranked Illinois last night. Utah, ranked 17th, fell to two unranked opponents this weekend. Stanford, which dropped six spots after a loss last week, fell to fifth-ranked Florida in five Friday.