HONOLULU – The fourth-ranked Wisconsin volleyball team opened the 2016 season with a 3-1 win at No. 6 Hawai'i late Friday night. The Badgers downed the Rainbow Wahine 25-16, 25-16, 24-26, 25-23.

"I thought we played well," head coach Kelly Sheffield said. "I thought we served and passed really well the first couple of sets. I thought defensively in the backcourt we were really, really good.

"We serve received really good. Our passing numbers were fantastic."

Freshman Molly Haggerty made an impressive debut, recording a double-double with a match-high 19 kills while adding 16 digs.  Senior Haleigh Nelson added 14 kills while junior Lauryn Gillis chipped in 12 putaways. Sophomore Tionna Willaims was the fourth Badger in double figures with 11 kills. The middle blocker also hit a match-high .421 (11 kills – 3 errors – 19 attempts).

"Haggerty was just fantastic when the match was on the line," explained Sheffield. "When it was winning time, she was really good."

Wisconsin dominated Hawai'i, which was missing two of their top returnees, on offense, hitting .265 (64-21-162) as a team, compared to .109 (42-25-156) for the Bows. Freshman Kirsten Sibley and junior Emily Maglio put away 13 and 12 kills, respectively. The Rainbow Wahine were playing without reigning Big West Conference Player of the Year Nikki Taylor and senior middle blocker Annie Mitchem due to injury.

The Badgers also outdug the Rainbow Wahine 72-64 behind a career-high 22 digs from Kelli Bates. The junior took over at libero for the first time in her career.  UW also recorded four service aces behind two from senior Lauren Carlini. The setter put up 58 of Wisconsin's 62 assists in the match.

UW was outblocked 11.5 – 8.0 with Williams leading all players with six blocks.

After easily winning the first two sets, the Badgers faced a different Hawai'i team in the third set after the Bows changed setters. Freshman Norene Iosia came off the bench to rejuvenate the Rainbow Wahine offense. UH was hitting a negative .013 (12-14-77) after two sets but with Iosia at quarterback, the Bows hit .238 in the third set.

"At the start of game three, I thought we let our foot off the gas a little bit defensively," Sheffield added. "We weren't pursuing balls.

"There were a lot of changes they were doing all match long. (Hawai'i) brought a new setter in to start the third set and her serve was nasty. That change did a world of good for them. They changed some of their backcourt people and there were so many defensive changes that we had to figure out what we wanted to do there. About halfway through the third set, we started playing hard again."

Wisconsin led 21-18 in the period before Hawaii rallied to tie the set at 22. The Rainbow Wahine broke a 24-24 tie off a UW service error with Sibley scoring the set-winning kill.

In the fourth set, the Badgers rallied from a 19-16 deficit to tie the score at 20 behind two kills from Haggerty. Wisconsin led 22-20 but the Rainbow Wahine came back to knot the set at 22 behind two kills from Maglio. Another kill from Haggerty and a huge block by Carlini and Williams gave UW its first match point at 24-22. Hawai'i held off one match point before a kill by Williams gave the Badgers the win.

"In game four, we fell behind but the thing I really liked and what I saw was there wasn't any panic from our team at all," said Sheffield. "There wasn't any worry from our team. They were just really locked in."

Wisconsin faces Arizona, a 3-1 loser to Kansas State in Friday's opening match, at 9:45 p.m. CT on Saturday. The tournament wraps up on Sunday with a 5 p.m. CT match against K-State.