HILO, Hawai`i—It certainly didn't go exactly as scripted, except for the getting the victory part.

Hawai`i Hilo survived a scare from visiting and winless Academy of Art, holding on for a 25-19, 21-25, 27-25, 25-16 win on Friday night in front of 497 fans at Vulcan Gymnasium.

The victory was the fourth straight for UH Hilo, improving their overall record to 10-3 and their Pacific West Conference mark to 6-1. The tenth win for head coach Gene Krieger's squad also means that they have already surpassed their 2017 win total, before getting out of the month of September.

Academy of Art drops to 0-16 on the year and 0-8 in the PacWest, but for much of the night it was hard to believe that they haven't won a match yet this year.

Kiley Davis led the Vulcans with ten kills and a .429 hitting percentage. Ashton Jessee had nine kills, as did Alexandria Parisian. Basia Sauni had 27 assists, eight digs and three service aces, while fellow setter Maile Powell had 21 assists and two aces. Mina Grant dug up 24 balls in the back row.

Freshman middle blocker Jillian Wheaton led the Urban Knights with 14 kills and a sizzling .519 attack percentage. Ashley Pawlak added 10 kills and led her team with 15 digs.

The first set went sorta like you might expect, if you were playing this match on paper. The Vulcans broke a 5-5 tie with eight straight points off the serve of Powell, which included two aces by the lefty freshman. That gave UHH a 13-6 lead and they pushed that margin out to 24-15 before settling for the first set score of 25-19.

But the second set was different. The two teams traded blows and were tied at 13-13 before the Urban Knights went on a run. They had their biggest lead of the night at 19-15 and never trailed the rest of the set (25-21).

The third set was pivotal. UH Hilo held early leads at 16-10 and 22-17, but the Urban Knights proceeded to score six straight points off the serve of Picabo Reinhold, tying the match at 22-22 on a Reinhold ace. AAU led at 23-22, but the Vulcans then scored back-to-back points, and would have three sets points before securing the rubber-set at 27-25.

The fourth set was tied at 9-9 before a trio of kills by Teisa Tuioti, Bria Beale and Davis gave the home team 12-9 lead, and they would never trail again.

The Vulcans got big play off the bench from Tori Daligcon, who had four kills in the third and fourth sets. In all, nine different players had kills in the stat column for Krieger's squad.

"We had some folks step up tonight when we needed them to, like Tori," Krieger said after the match. "Armani Moultrie also played well off the bench. It's nice that we were able to get the win, even when we didn't play our best.

"Credit to Academy of Art, I thought they played tough in a difficult environment," Krieger added.

This match was the first of a six-match homestand for the Vulcans, who will next host Holy Names on Monday night (Oct. 1) at Vulcan Gymnasium. Start time is 7 p.m.