By Cindy Luis

Two wins by Hawaii and a loss by Florida  added up to the Rainbow Wahine moving up in the AVCA Coaches Top 25 women’s volleyball poll released today.The Rainbow Wahine (17-3), with two victories last week over San Jose State and Fresno State, moved up to No. 8. The Gators lost in five to Georgia and fell to No. 11.The top seven remained the same, led by unanimous No. 1 Penn State (22-0). The Nittany Lions are followed by Nebraska, Texas, Cal, Stanford, Washington and Oregon.Hawaii returns to Western Athletic Conference play Friday against Nevada. 

By Dave Reardon

This from a release from the WAC: Hawaii quarterback Greg Alexander, Idaho defensive end Josh Shaw and Fresno State placekicker Kevin Goessling were named the Western Athletic Conference offensive, defensive and special teams players of the week. Alexander, a junior from Santa Rosa, Calif. (Santa Rosa College), came off the bench to start the second half of UH’s 38-31 win over Nevada and was 17-of-22 for 205 yards and two touchdowns. He opened the third quarter by directing the Warriors to a field goal and a 17-10 lead. He then threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Michael Washington on the first play of the fourth quarter and added a 24-yard scoring pass to Malcolm Lane with 20 seconds remaining in the game to give Hawaii the victory after Nevada had just scored to tie the game with 1:31 left. Alexander also led the Warriors in rushing with nine carries for 21 yards.

By Cindy Luis

compliments of RichKern.com#5 Stanford def. #10 UCLA 3-1#8 Florida lost to Georgia 2-3UCLA (H) lost to #5 Stanford 1-3#21 Wisconsin (H) lost to Indiana 1-3#22 Kentucky def. Alabama 3-0#25 Saint Louis (H) def. Xavier 3-0

By Cindy Luis

Hawaii up 9-4. Timeout Fresno State. UH 5-0-12, no one with more than 2 kills so far. 9 digs for wahine.  sorry, lost the connection for half the set.UH wins 25-15. Houston 4-1-5, Cubi-Otineru 3-0-5. UH hit .392 14-3-28 with 16 digs.  

By Dave Reardon

That’s the tentative plan for now, Greg McMackin said in a brief phone interview this afternoon. Hey, it worked last night. No decision on a starter yet for Saturday’s game at Utah State. But the coach said he wants to make a decision before Tuesday’s practice after reviewing tape with the staff.

By Dave Reardon

A couple of notes that apparently didn’t get into the paper:

Injury report

The Warriors came out of the game relatively unscathed, except for defensive tackle Josh Leonard. The senior starter was on crutches after the game.

“My ankle got rolled with about four plays left,” he said.

Starting senior linebacker Adam Leonard left early to have a hand X-rayed, but returned during the first half and finished with nine tackles. 

Special stuff

The Hawaii special teams had one of their better games, especially on kickoff returns. In addition to scoring the winning touchdown on a pass reception, Malcolm Lane replaced Ryan Mouton as the primary returner. He consistently gave UH good field position with 115 yards on four returns.

“We had so many creases,” Lane said.

The performance was especially gratifying to special teams coordinator Ikaika Malloe, who missed part of the week after undergoing an appendectomy.

“We always knew (Lane) had the talent to do the job,” Malloe said. “We just had to make sure we gave him some room. We placed a huge emphasis on the wedge.”

Former starting slotback Aaron Bain returned three punts for 25 yards.

J.P. Davis downed two Tim Grasso punts near the Nevada goal line.

By Dave Reardon

Lots of big plays in this one. Alexander to Lane for the winning TD of course, Fonoti’s TD. Tell me your favorites and maybe it will make the top five for Warrior Replay.

By Dave Reardon

Third Hawaii QB of the night. First pass a completion to Mouton for 10 yards.

By Dave Reardon

The starting outside linebacker hurt his hand, got it X-rayed, and returned to the field. R.J. Kiesel-Kauhane was in the game for him. Meanwhile, Solomon Elimimian has broken the school record for tackles, getting the record with a huge stick. But on the next play Colin Kaepernick went 61 yards to tie the game at 7. John Fonoti had put UH ahead with a touchdown on a fumble forced by David Veikune. It is UH’s first defensive touchdown of the season. It looks like Funaki and Graunke are alternating series for now.

By Dave Reardon

After -4 yards on the first series, Tyler Graunke is in at QB for UH.So far the Ryan Mouton experiment is not so good, two passes thrown to him, no catches. One carry for no gain. And he may have caught Colin Kaepernick on that long TD run if he’d been in on defense.