HILO—It was a 2.5 hour slugfest, and in the end two points were all that separated Notre Dame de Namur and Hawai`i Hilo in women's volleyball action on Thursday night at Vulcan Gym.

Those two points belonged to the Argonauts as they claimed a wild 17-25, 25-22, 25-20, 21-25, 15-13 win over the Vulcans in a match that featured momentum changes and two superstar performances, one from each team.

The victory moves the Argonauts mark to 6-14 on the season and to 4-8 in the Pacific West Conference. The Vulcans dropped to 7-9 on the year and to 5-6 in conference action.

Marley Strand-Nicolaisen tied a career high with 27 kills for UHH, and on the other side of the net the PacWest leader in that category Bianca Alvarez countered with 27 of her own. Often times the two sluggers exchanged points on consecutive plays.

Strand-Nicolaisen hit at a scorching .328 clip and also added 27 digs on the defensive side.  She only had seven errors in 61 swings. Kyndra Trevino-Scott was the only other Vulcan with double figures in kills with 10.

The Vulcans led the entire first set, by as many as 10 points as Strand-Nicolaisen had seven kills and hit .500. In the second set, the Vuls jumped out to a 3-0 lead and still had a four-point margin at 16-12, but the Argonauts rallied back to tie it at 16-16 and then again at 20-20.  UHH inched ahead to 22-20, but the first major momentum swing of the evening kicked in when NDNU scored the next five points to close out the set, 25-22. Three of those points came off the block, as the visitors had 10 blocks through two sets.

The pivotal third set ran like a teeter-totter. Hawai`i Hilo had a 10-6 lead but the Argonauts scored eight straight points to take a 14-10 margin and they would never trail in the set again. The visitors dug nearly everything in the set and Alvarez slammed down nine kills to give her team the 25-21 third set win and a 2-1 set advantage.

The Vulcans battled back in the fourth set, breaking an 18-18 tie to pull away for the 25-21 win. Both Trevino-Scott and Strand-Nicolaisen had pivotal kills late in the game.

In the fifth, the Argonauts, who upset conference leader California Baptist earlier this month, raced out to a 6-0 lead before a service error clipped their streak. They still led at 7-1 before the Vulcans took control of the roller coaster and scored seven straight points with Kaila Lizama serving. That run included four consecutive put-aways by Strand-Nicolaisen

But the Argonauts reclaimed the led on a Alvarez kill, and then two more blocks gave the California team a 12-9 lead. Alvarez set up match point with a dump over the block (14-11) and then finished off the match two points later after a long rally with another kill.

Dominique Tarrant had 14 kills to supplement Alvarez's numbers, setter Margaret Billingsley had 59 assists and libero Carina Quintero had a match-high 30 digs for NDNU.

Sienna Davis had 51 assists and 20 digs for the Vuls and Mina Grant added 22 digs. UHH played the match without starter Siera Green, who had 17 kills in Monday's upset of Dixie State. The junior hurt her ankle in practice on Wednesday.

The Vulcans will now have to turn around quickly on Saturday, hosting one of the top teams in the conference in Dominican. Start time is 7 p.m.