HILO, Hawai`i—If the Hawai`i Hilo Vulcans do qualify for post-season play, they worked their way through an excellent final tune-up tonight during a five-set win over Academy of Art on Senior Night at the Vulcan Gymnasium.
789 Vulcan fans were on their feet at the end as the Vulcans finally closed out the Urban Knights, 25-17, 25-23, 15-25, 26-28, 15-6. Fittingly on Senior Night, it was
Tori Daligcon who came off the bench to finish the match with a put-away, sending the Vulcan fans and players into celebration.
UH Hilo won the first two sets, weathered a terrific comeback by the Urban Knights and then rolled to the win in the fifth set. The Vulcans improved to 23-7 on the season and to 18-4 in the Pacific West Conference. Academy of Art ends their season at 12-18 on the year and to 9-13 in the PacWest.
The Vulcans now await word about postseason play, which will come via the NCAA Selection Show on Monday at 2:30 pm Hawaii time (ncaa.com).
The Vulcans had many heroes tonight, led by freshman
Emily Wade who had 17 kills (.444), two solo blocks and nine block assists.
Bria Beale added 15 kills and
Alexandria Parisian had 13. Senior
Kaila Lizama had 19 digs, and
Kendall Kott had big numbers with 47 assists, five kills, 11 digs and six block assists.
Carly Evetts led the Urban Knights with 17 kills, Celena Davison had a career-high 13 and Ashley Pawlak had 18 digs.
The Vulcans looked to celebrate all night with an easy first set win. They hit .444, had seven different players with kills and had just two errors in the set.
The second set was much different. There were 12 ties, including at 23-23 before the Vulcans scored the last two points of the set—one on an improbable kill by libero Lizama and the 25
th point came from a Wade swing. UHH hit .387 and looked to be on their way to an early night.
But ART had other ideas. They dominated the third set, running out to a 6-0 lead and never trailed the entire set. They would lead by as many as 11 points before settling for the 25-15 tally. The fourth set was a marathon, would ART leading for most of it before the Vulcans rallied. Down 15-10, and 23-18, the home team fought back. The Urban Knights had three set points and UHH had match point the visitors wrapped it up at 28-26.
That brought a nervous fifth set to the table. And the Vulcans dominated that one from the beginning. They jumped out to a 4-1 lead , moved it to 7-2 on a LIzama ace and eventually closed out on the Daligcon kill.
"Some of this seemed scripted, some wasn't how I would have written it," said Vulcan head coach
Chris Leonard. "But we got the win which has been one of our hallmarks this season, showing the ability to battle back. It was a great night for our seniors and I am very happy for them."
