IRVINE, Calif.--Hawai`i Hilo overcame one uncharacteristic throw-away set and came back to defeat Concordia in four games on Saturday night at the CU Arena.
The Vulcans wrapped up their southern California trip and final road venture of the year with a 25-21, 9-25, 25-21, 25-14 victory over the Eagles to get the season sweep of Concordia. UHH won three of four matches on this roadie, all against teams with winning records.
UH Hilo is now 21-7 on the season and 16-4 in the Pacific West Conference. They are two matches behind front runner Azusa Pacific (18-2) with two matches to play. The Vulcans wrap up the regular season this coming week with home matches on Wednesday (Holy Names) and Saturday (Academy of Art). The next NCAA West Region poll comes out on Wednesday, with the NCAA Selection Show following on Monday, Nov. 25.
Concordia is now 16-11 overall and 10-9 in the PacWest.
The Vulcans used 11 kills from
Bria Beale and ten from
Emily Wade to help pace the win. Beale only had two kills after the first two sets, but rallied back with nine over the final two. Wade also had eight blocks.
The Vulcans came out of the blocks slow tonight, trailing almost the entire first set before tying it up at 20-20. They then took five of the next six points to win (25-21). They had only four errors in the set.
But the Vulcan team head coach
Chris Leonard is used to completely disappeared in the second set. The Eagles led from start to finish in the romp (25-9) as the Vulcans only had five total kills in the set. The visitors got back on track in the third, blowing out to an 18-8 lead before weathering a Concordia comeback (25-21). UHH hit .379 in the game and Beale drilled the winner down the line for her fourth kill of the set.
The fifth was all UH Hilo. Breaking a 4-4 tie, the Vulcans scored six of seven (10-5) and then dropped in nine straight points to take a 13-point lead (19-6) before closing out at 25-14.
Armani Moultrie added seven kills and
Kaila Lizama had 16 digs and three aces for UHH. Patience O'Neal had 11 kills and Julia DenBoer had 15 digs to lead the Eagles.
Start time for both of UH HIlo's matches this week is 7 p.m. at Vulcan Gymnasium.
