HILO, Hawai`i—Visiting Azusa Pacific came to Vulcan Gymnasium on Wednesday night in first place in the Pacific West Conference, and they will leave Hilo still on the ladder's top rung with a convincing 25-19, 20-25, 25-14, 25-11 win over UH Hilo in front of 433 Halloween evening fans.

The Cougars, ranked fifth in the NCAA West Region, won their fifth straight match to improve to 20-6 on the year and to 16-2 in the PacWest. The Vulcans saw their six-match winning streak come to a close and are now 18-6 on the year and 14-4 in the PacWest.

Freshman Katarina Radisic led the Cougars with 15 kills and a .414 hitting percentage, on a night where her team apparently could do no wrong.

"They didn't make many mistakes tonight," said Vulcan head coach Gene Kreiger. "We had our chances, but they (APU) just outplayed us big time in the third and fourth sets."

Tonight's win gives the Cougars a season sweep over the Vulcans as they head to Oahu to take on Hawaii Pacific and Chaminade. APU hit .324 as a team on the night.

The Cougars set the tone early, rolling out to a 20-12 lead in the first set. The visitors hit .478 in the set and Radisic (from Serbia) got off to a hot start with six kills.

The second set went back and forth, and was tied at 19-19 when the Vulcans went on their most impressive tear of the night. Evelin Solyomvari had a block and two kills as UH Hilo won six of the final seven points to get the crowd back into the match and even things up at a set apiece.

But it was all Azusa after that. APU blitzed out to a 10-4 lead in the third set and pushed that margin to 18-6. They would win the set (25-14), and it would be more of the same in the fourth. With UHH trailing just 11-8, the Cougars would score five of the next six points to pull away, eventually scoring 14 of the final 17 points of the match.

In addition to Radisic's 15 kills, Sara Wagenveld had 12 and Aliyah Morrison added 10.

Bria Beale and Alexandria Parisian led UH Hilo with nine kills each. Basia Sauni and Mina Grant had 11 digs apiece and Teisa Tuioti had ten. Armani Moultrie had three block assists to lead UH Hilo in that category.

The Vulcans will have short time to forget this one, taking on Point Loma on Saturday at 5 pm. The Vulcans and Sea Lions are both in the post-season hunt, with Point Loma currently ranked ninth in the latest west region poll (the Vulcans are unofficially 11^th).

It will be Senior Night for UH Hilo, and the Vulcans will honor Grant, Solyomvari, Sauni and Kiley Davis after the match.