At the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant was the hero for the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night. He banked in an improbable, floating jump shot from behind the three-point line as time expired to give his team the 108-107 victory.

After the game, he claimed it was nothing but luck.

Though it did not have ESPN's nationwide television audience, the following day just down Figueroa Street at the Galen Center, the end of the NCAA women's volleyball second round matchup between Hawai'i (30-2) and USC (22-10) also featured an incredible play that was rooted in luck.

Ahead two sets to one and ahead 23-19 in the fourth set, the No. 12 Hawai'i Rainbow Wahine appeared to be on their way to an easy win, but the USC Trojans rallied back scoring five consecutive points off of Hawai'i errors, including three caused by Alex Jupiter blocks.

The Rainbow Wahine managed to stave off two set points before getting back-to-back blocks to win the match. The final block by senior Aneli Cubi-Otineru came against Trojans' middle blocker Lauren Williams, who was the Trojans' most consistent attacker on the night finishing with a team-high 14 kills.

The 6-foot-4 Williams received the set from Kendall Bateman and went to slam it down just to the left of the center of the net as she had previously done four times in the final set. Despite giving up six inches, Cubi-Otineru came across from her outside hitter position timing her leap perfectly and stuffed the shot back to the Trojans side where neither Bateman nor Audrey Eichler could reach the ball before it met the hardwood.

"That block came out of nowhere," said Hawai'i head coach Dave Shoji. "She had no business being up, but she was. Like Kobe's bankshot or something, it wasn't planned or something we do. It turned out to be a great play, but it was a lucky play to be honest."

"I just committed. Hoping to God that they set her," Cubi-Otineru said.

Cubi-Otineru's "lucky" play gave the Rainbow Wahine a 3-1 victory and concluded an exciting and dramatic fourth set that featured 11 ties and seven lead changes.

While the fourth set had fans on the edge of their seat throughout, it was a drastic change from the first three anti-climatic sets.

Like they did Friday night against Oklahoma in the opening round of the NCAA tournament, the Women of Troy fell behind early and found themselves in a deep hole trailing 15-9. However, against a Hawai'i team with much more athleticism than Oklahoma, USC could not battle back falling 25-20.

Hawai'i jumped out to a commanding lead in the second set taking a 13-6 lead that they pushed up to 20-11 before winning 25-18 to open up a 2-0 set lead.

Without USC recording a single block in the second set, the Rainbow Wahine hit an astounding 48.3 percent led by sophomore sensation Kanani Danielson, who hit a whopping 63.6 percent with seven kills in the set and gave the Trojans fits all night.

"Her arm speed is a little bit different than we've seen in the past," said USC senior libero Alli Hillgren. "She creates a block-timing issue because she hangs [in the air], but then she swings really fast."

Danielson was the top performer on the night finishing with a match-high 23 kills and 40.9 hitting percentage. She also contributed 11 digs.

"She did a really good job of preparing. She knew our defense," Hillgren said, adding: "She did a good job of finding the seams and hitting the backline."

While the Rainbow Wahine's sophomore star was shining, USC's struggled. A night after having 23 kills in only three sets, Alex Jupiter finished with only five kills and nine errors against Hawai'i. Combined with an uncustomary poor performance by senior Jessica Gysin, the Trojans left outside attack was unable to carry the offensive load as they typically do.

"Hawai'i did a really good job defending [Alex and me]," Gysin said. "They knew what shots we were going to hit. We tried mixing it up, but it just wasn't working for us."

It took Williams's strong performance in the middle and some adjustments by the blockers for the Women of Troy to get back into the game. Coming out of the second set break, blocking adjustments helped negate the speed attacks of Hawai'i and didn't allow the easy points the Rainbow Wahine had gotten in the first two sets.

After being tied early in the set, the third set quickly became a rout. USC reeled off seven of eight points to take an 11-4 lead that they never let up taking the set 25-16.

USC carried the momentum into the fourth set, and appeared to be ready to go to a fifth and deciding set but couldn't get the final kill. The set was a battle of defenses as both teams hit below 10 percent. The teams combined for 13 blocks in the final set. USC tallied nine of those, including four solo blocks by the outside duo of Jupiter and Gysin.

But in the end Cubi-Otineru had the final say and the final block. She finished with a double-double recording 14 kills and 12 digs. Elizabeth Ka'aihue had a match-high 20 digs from her libero position.

"When it gets down to that last couple of points in game four, it's about who can make the play," said Shoji. "They know what we're going to do; we know what they're going to do. You got to make the play, and we made three of them at the end."

Hawai'i carries a 26-match winning streak to the Sweet 16 where they will face the national No. 5 seed, Illinois, next Friday at Maples Pavilion on Stanford's campus in Palo Alto, California.

For the Trojans, the season ends with a loss to Hawai'i in the second round for the second year in a row. They will have to replace Hillgren, Gysin, and fellow senior Emilie Stewart.

"They're going to have to fill the leadership role, but I think they're not going to have a problem with that. They are getting a great recruiting class next year, so I think it's going to be a seamless transition for them," Gysin said.

Hillgren, whose little sister, Carolyn, could vie for playing time next season, added: "They have a good core. They're good together, and they're close, and I wish them all the best."

Hillgren and Gysin leave large shoes to fill as both depart with their names dotting the record books. Hillgren finishes fourth on the career digs list while Gysin finishes second all-time in career points behind only Keao Burdine. With her two solo blocks, Gysin also finishes tied for eighth in career solo blocks.