HILO, Hawai`i—What a difference 12 days can make, apparently, for the Hawai`i Hilo volleyball team.
Less than two weeks after winning a marathon five-set match over Notre Dame de Namur on the road, the Vulcans made quick work of the Argonauts on Thursday night at Vulcan Gymnasium, 25-11, 25-7, 25-14.
UH Hilo won its eighth straight in a match that took just a few minutes over an hour to complete. The Vulcans are now 13-5 on the season and 8-2 in the Pacific West Conference. The Argonauts lost their eighth consecutive contest to drop to 2-14 on the year and to 1-8 in the PacWest.
The Vulcans had 42 kills in the three sets and hit a season-best .432. They had just seven attack errors on the night. They also had eight service aces, and on defense held the Argonauts to a .000 hitting percentage.
Bria Beale led the Vulcans with 13 kills, hitting .478. She had four service aces and eight digs.
Amber Tai was in double figures with 11 kills, hitting .476.
Alexandria Parisian added nine kills (.643) and zipped in three aces.
Kendall Kott had 30 assists and
Kaila Lizama had 11 digs to pace the Vulcans in that category.
Every Vulcan in uniform got into the game. "It was a good, complete night," said Vulcan head coach
Chris Leonard. "We played much different than we did a few weeks ago. Just trying to keep things rolling."
The Vulcans broke open the first set after taking an 11-8 lead. At 14-10, they scored six straight points and then closed out the set with three kills in the final five points from Parisian. They hit .433, with four kills from Parisian, Beale and Tai.
In the second set, UH Hilo busted out to a big lead early and continued to roll. It was 13-3 pretty quickly and the home team would keep rolling before closing out the set on a
Emma Behnam kill (25-7). The Vulcans hit .500 in the set and Beale had five kills. Six different players recorded kills in the set.
The Argonauts didn't go down easy, taking a 3-1 lead early in the third set. But the Vulcans scored four of the next five points and never trailed again. They hit .367 in the set, putting the Argos away, 25-14.
Samantha Shaffer had four kills to lead NDNU and Nofoalii Selu had seven digs.
The Vulcans will continue this seven-match homestand with a Saturday encounter versus Fresno Pacific and a Sunday night match with Dominican. Both contests start at 7 pm.
