HILO, Hawai`i—Tell me if you have heard this one before.
The Hawai`i Hilo volleyball team used a balanced attack to roll to a three-set win over visiting Notre Dame de Namur on Monday night at Vulcan Gymnasium. A crowd of 417 saw volleyball for just one hour and 18 minutes as the Vulcans rolled to a 25-14, 25-17, 25-15 win, their fourth victory in a row.
It was also UH Hilo's fourth consecutive win in just three sets as they improved to 6-2 on the season and 2-0 in the Pacific West Conference. Notre Dame de Namur dropped to 1-10 on the year and 0-3 in the PacWest.
For the Vulcans, the 6-2 start is the best for the program since the 2011 club began at 6-0.
Bria Beale led the balanced stat sheet with 12 kills, followed by
Evelin Solyomvari with ten.
Kiley Davis added nine kills from the middle and
Alexandria Parisian had seven. Beale hit .321, while Davis and Parisian hit .353. The Vulcans hit an even .300 as a team.
"That looks like how we draw it up," head coach
Gene Krieger smiled afterwards. "We need the complete effort from everyone for this to work."
Included in that effort was Armani Moultre's five kills off the bench on just eight swings.
Basia Sauni had 28 assists and 16 digs, while
Mina Grant matched that dig total and also had three service aces.
Ashton Jessee had five block assists for UHH, who had 16 block assists on the night.
Beale had six of her kills in the first set, helping the Vulcans break away from a slight 10-9 lead to a 16-9 margin. The home team would go on to hit. 382 in the set (25-14). The second set was tied at 9-9 before the Vulcans pulled away, scoring eight of the next nine points. That included a pair of aces from Grant (25-17).
In the third set, the hosts broke out to a 6-1 lead, but the Argonauts battled back to a 10-10 tie. The Vulcans would again score eight of the next nine points to pull away for the 25-15 margin.
Next, the Vulcans will get back to the practice floor, with no matches for another week. When they resume play, it will be for four tough matches on the road in southern California, beginning with a Sept. 17 bout with Azusa Pacific.
"The challenging part is that we will see four of the toughest teams in our conference, in their home gyms," Krieger said. "The good news is that we are going on the road at 6-2, and that is a good place to be."