HONOLULU, Hawai`i—In a tug of war that lasted two hours and 22 minutes, visiting Hawai`i Hilo got the last pull during a 25-21, 21-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-8 marathon volleyball victory over Hawaii Pacific on Friday night at St. Andrew's Priory.
The win kept UH Hilo's playoffs hopes alive with one regular season match remaining—tomorrow night against fellow contender Chaminade (7 pm).
The Vulcans improved to 21-6 on the season and to 17-4 in the Pacific West Conference. They completed the season sweep over the rival Sharks, who are 11-10 in the PacWest and 12-15 on the year.
Bria Beale led an attack with a number of heroes, finishing with 17 kills and a .326 hitting percentage.
Ashton Jessee added 14 kills at a .500 clip, had three aces and four total blocks.
Evelin Solyomvari had 11 kills,
Alexandria Parisian added nine and
Armani Moultrie had another complete match with eight kills (.329), three aces and six total blocks.
Mina Grant had 20 digs on the defensive side and
Teisa Tuioti had 14.
The Vulcans hit .310 in the first set, breaking away from the Sharks with the score tied at 19-18 on kills by Jessee and Moultrie, a Jessee ace and a finish by Solymvari to make the set count 25-21. The Sharks took set two , breaking a 19-19 tie with six straight points to win, 25-19.
The third set went back and forth as well. Tied at 16-16, UH Hilo won seven straight points to take control and the 2-1 set lead (25-19). But the Sharks rallied back in the fourth set, again a nail bitter, scoring the final two points of the set to break a 23-23 deadlock and send the match to a final square off (25-23).
In the deciding set, UH Hilo broke out to a 4-1 lead thanks in part to two kills by Jessee, and they would never trail. A Beale kill made it 7-4, a Jessee mash 9-5, and
Teisa Tuioti's put a ball away to make the count 11-7. Another Beale spike made it 12-7, a Shark attack error pushed it to 13-7, a Jessee kill 14-7 and Beale wrapped it up with her 17
th kill to end the long match (15-8).
Hawaii Pacific's Cameron Collie led all players with 23 kills. UH Hilo hit a robust .305 on the night as a team, while the Sharks were at .216.
Chaminade defeated Fresno Pacific tonight to improve to 22-5 overall and to 16-5 in the PacWest. The Silverswords won the match-up between the two teams earlier this season in HIlo.
