FRESNO, Calif.—In the final moments of their fifth road match in six days, the Hawai`i Hilo Vulcans may have finally run out of gas.

The Vulcans, who had won all three conference matches on this trip in northern California and had captured four of their last five matches overall, led two sets to one against host Fresno Pacific on Friday night, but the Sunbirds roared back in the final two sets to claim the five set victory.

The Sunbirds made it a sweep of UH Hilo on the season with the 18-25, 25-19, 20-25, 25-15, 15-7 victory. Fresno Pacific improved to 6-3 in the Pacific West Conference and to 8-10 overall. The Vulcans dropped to 5-5 in conference action and they will return home at 8-9 on the season.

The home team picked up their fourth win in a row with the wild, two-hour match at the FPU Events Center.

There wasn't a close set on the night, as each team took turns dominating.

In the opening set, it was the Vulcans who rolled. They broke an 8-8 tied with four consecutive kills—two by Evelin Solyomvari and one each by Amber Tai and Kiley Davis, to take a lead that they wouldn't give up (12-8). They would go on to build an eight-point lead before settling for the 25-18 final. Siera Green had five kills in the set and the Vulcans hit .316 as a team.

In the second set, the Sunbirds bolted out to a 7-1 lead and never trailed before claiming a 25-19 verdict. The momentum shifted back to the Vulcans in the third set. A Green kill gave UHH a 6-4 lead and they would never be on the short side of the scoreboard in that set. The visitors would hit .359 in rolling to the 25-20 lead.

The fuel tank may have begun to read empty in the fourth set. With FPU enjoying a short 8-7 lead, the Sunbirds reeled off seven straight points and then went on another 8-0 run before the set was over. UH Hilo closed on a 5-0 run, but Fresno Pacific then closed out the set at 25-15.

The fifth set was similar, just shorter. The Sunbirds fired out to a 5-1 lead and moments later scored six straight points to make it 11-2. The Vulcans rallied back to within six points (13-7) but could get no closer before Karah Mitchell closed out the match with her 18^th kill of the night (15-7).

FPU hit .476 in the fifth set, and for the night had a season-high 76 kills. Mitchell led five Sunbirds in double figure kill totals.

Green led UHH with 16 kills, and she also had 12 digs. Solyomvari was next with nine kills. The Vulcans were a wall at the net again with 17 total blocks. Kiley Davis had nine assisted blocks and Ashton Jessee had eight. Jessee also had seven kills and hit .400. Mina Grant led the defense with 21 digs.

The Vulcans were without Lucee Fitzgerald for the third straight match. Fitzgerald, injured in the Notre Dame de Namur match, is third on the team in kills per set.

UH Hilo now returns home for their next  four matches, beginning with a Friday (Oct. 20) encounter versus Dominican.