HONOLULU—No. 18 Hawaii felt the pressure from the Idaho Vandals on opening night, but the Vandals were unable to pull the upset on Friday in the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational. The Vandals held late leads in sets two and three, but the Rainbow Wahine overtook the Vandals 25-18, 25-23, 25-19.

The young Idaho squad impressed the crowd of 6,845, pushing host Hawaii with strong play in the second set and third set. Sophomore Torrin Crawford matched career highs in kills and hitting percentage and added a career best four blocks. She closed the match with a line of eight kills, zero errors, 12 total attacks and a .667 hitting percentage. Senior Katelyn Peterson led the team with 11 kills, pushing her over 700 for her career.

Hawaii opened the match strong right out of the gate, recording the first six points. Idaho's slow start forced an early timeout. The Vandals surged back into contention out of the stoppage, rattling off a 9-2 run to even the match at nine all. Hawaii answered back with a 12-4 run to open a 21-13 lead, eventually leading to a 25-18 set win.

“There were some jitters early on,” head coach Debbie Buchanan noted. “For a lot of our girls that was the first venue that they have played in. Once we got the jitters out and relaxed a little we were able to make things happen offensively.”

Idaho impressed in the second set, going toe-to-toe with the 'Bows. The set saw 10 ties, including seven before either team reached its 10th point. The Silver and Gold outhit Hawaii in the set .492-.281. Idaho held the late lead at 23-19, but six consecutive points from Hawaii shutdown Idaho's momentum. Crawford turned up the heat, totaling four kills on five attempts. Redshirt freshman Sarah Sharp also got in on the action, totaling four kills of her own.

The third set mirrored the previous. The Vandals held onto a 16-13 lead, fighting back from being down 8-2 early on. Late errors did the Vandals in as Hawaii closed the match on a 7-0 run, taking the set 25-19.

“We had a great night passing and did some good things defensively,” Buchanan added. “We played a very good team tonight, we just had a few too many errors. We need to reduce our errors tomorrow and serve a little bit tougher. We battled tonight, the difference was we just made a few more errors.”

Hawaii, fielding its tallest team in program history at a six-foot average, was dominate at the net. They doubled the Vandals in blocks with 10. The host team hit .348 on the night to Idaho's .205. Nikki Taylor led all players with 12 kills for Hawaii.

Senior Jenna Ellis was solid defensively leading the match with 11 digs. Sophomore Becca Mau added five kills for Idaho. Senior Meredith Coba totaled 14 assists in her return from a torn ACL that ended her year late last season. Sophomore Sami Parris, playing as second setter in Idaho's 6-2 offense, put up 13 assists on the night.