HILO, Hawai`i—It's a popular phrase that might not even be appropriate in a women's volleyball setting, but "next man up" might be the best way to describe the plight for head coach Gene Krieger and his Hawai`i Hilo volleyball team.

With two senior leaders on the sidelines for Sunday's match against island rival Hawai`i Pacific, the Vulcan bench stepped up to help rally UH Hilo to a 25-22, 25-22, 12-25, 25-17 victory over the Sharks in front of 511 fans at Vulcan Gymnasium.

The Vulcans got back on the winning track, improving to 12-4 on the year and to 8-2 in the Pacific West Conference. UH Hilo has won six of their last seven matches, after falling to Chaminade on Saturday night in four sets.

Hawai`i Pacific's two-match win streak comes to a halt. They are now 4-6 in PacWest play and 5-11 on the year.

The Vulcans, playing without the PacWest Preseason Libero of the year (Mina Grant) and middle blocker Kiley Davis, needed at least two players to step up big. Krieger got that from defensive specialist Kaila Lizama and middle Armani Moultrie.

Lizama had a career-high 28 digs while filling in for Grant, and Moultrie had ten kills with a .625 hitting percentage, stepping in for Davis. The ten kills were a career high for the 5-foot-11 Moultrie.

"Both of them played a key role for us tonight," Krieger said afterwards. "Our depth is one of our biggest strengths and that played out the way we needed it to tonight."

Teisa Tuioti had 11 kills to lead the Vulcans, Ashton Jessee had nine and Alexandria Parisian added eight. Bria Beale had three service aces and 13 digs, Maile Powell had 21 assists and 12 digs, and Moultrie had five block assists to go with her ten kills. Basia Sauni had 20 assists and eight digs.

The first two sets were tight. The Vulcans led for most of the first set but had a hard time putting the Sharks away. A Tuioti kill finally ended the set, a game that saw Moultrie get five of her kills. Jessee had four kills in the second set as the Vulcans narrowly won that one by the same 25-22 score.

But the third set belonged completely to the Sharks. Other than the first point, Hawaii Pacific never trailed, at one point running off ten straight digits off the serve of Carson Pyle—which included three aces by the senior from Texas.

The Vulcans got back on track in the final set, building an early lead and never trailing (25-17).

Cameryn Collie had 14 kills to lead HPU, who played tonight without one of their leaders, Perla Escobar. Nicole Ferris stepped up with 12 kills and Pyle added 11 kills, four aces and four block assists. Amanda Acosta had 24 digs for the Sharks.

UH Hilo's six-match homestand continues this coming week with a huge match-up against second-place Biola on Friday (Oct. 12) and concludes Sunday (Oct. 14) against Concordia.