HILO, Hawai`i—It was the 2018 coming out party of sorts, and 543 Vulcan volleyball fans enjoyed every bit of the celebration.

UH Hilo opened up the Pacific West Conference season with a three-set no-doubter, taking down visiting Dominican 25-18, 25-17, 25-17 in front of an appreciative Friday night crowd. With the Vulcans' official home openers marred by Hurricane Lane two weeks ago, tonight's match served as the "real" opener for head coach Gene Krieger's squad.

The victory was the third straight for the Vulcans, moving their record to 5-2 on the year and to 1-0 in the PacWest. It was also the third consecutive three-set win for Krieger's team. The Penguins fell to 2-4 on the year.

Balance appears to be a hallmark of this Vulcan team, and the blueprint for that mixture was easily readable on tonight's stat sheet.

Freshman Alexandria Parisian led the way with 12 kills, hitting .444 in the process. Right behind her were Bria Beale and Evelin Solyomvari with nine each, followed by Kylie Davis with five. Teisa Tuioti, Ashton Jessee and Armani Moultrie added four each.
UH Hilo hit .389 on the night, a coach's dream (or close to it).

"That's a great percentage, and even more surprising because we had quite a few attack errors," Krieger said. "But we had solid play from everyone, it was a very balanced effort again."

Krieger got great play from his setters. Senior Basia Sauni had 22 assists and six digs, and freshman Maile Powell had 19 assists and an astounding four service aces. The Vulcans had seven aces on the night, including two by Mina Grant who also led her team in digs with 13.

The home team had 18 block assists as well, paced by four each from Jessee and Davis.

The Vulcans were on the front end of the scoreboard for virtually the entire night. A run of seven of nine points in the first set, which included aces by Grant and Powell, gave the Vulcans a 12-5 lead. They would cruise from there (25-18), hitting .333 with seven different players recording kills.

In the second set, UH Hilo broke a 7-7 tie with back-to-back kills by Parisian and would never trail again on their way to a 25-17 win. In the third set, UHH broke out to a 4-0 lead and rolled from there. They hit .364 (after hitting .500 in the second set), with Parisian accounting for four kills in the decisive game (25-17). The entire evening took just one hour and 20 minutes to complete.

"It's good to be 1-0 in conference," Krieger added. "We look to get better and keep things rolling on Monday night."

The Vulcans will remain at home to take on Notre Dame de Namur on Monday night. Start time at Vulcan Gymnasium is 7 p.m.