Box Score HONOLULU—Chris Leonard has coached volleyball teams to an uncountable number of wins in his 20+-year career as a coach, but among them all, he won't likely ever forget today's victory.
Leonard notched his first win as a collegiate head coach this afternoon, leading the Vulcans to a 25-13, 25-15, 21-25, 20-25, 15-12 victory over Chico State in the 2019 season opener. It was UH Hilo's first match of the Hawai`i Challenge, hosted at the Shark Tank (Hawaii Pacific).
The Vulcans will play Minot State at 5 pm tonight (at Chaminade), and on Saturday will wrap up tournament play against Sonoma State and West Virginia State.
Leonard's team rolled to relatively easy victories in the first two sets, dropped the next two games, and were then just three points away from defeat before scoring the final four points to grab the dramatic victory.
Bria Beale led all players with 18 kills, followed closely by
Amber Tai's 14. Both players were efficient as well hitting .310 and .312 respectively.
The junior outside hitters also had three service aces apiece, as the Vulcans slipped a total of 13 serves past Chico State's reach.
Ashton Jessee had four.
Freshman setter
Kendall Kott had 45 assists in her collegiate debut, while
Kaila Lizama led the defense with 19 digs.
Alexandria Parisian was in double-figure dig totals with 15, as was Tai with 12.
Emily Wade had five block assists and a solo as the Vulcans were a lot to deal with at the net with two solos and 18 block assists total.
Still, for a few panicked moments late in the two-hour match, it looked like Leonard would have a loss in his debut. More on that in a few paragraphs
In the first set, the Vulcans broke a 3-3 tie with a six-point run—behind the serving of Tai (two aces) and Beale (two kills). From that 9-3 lead, they advanced to 19-9 and 22-12 leads before getting to the first set final of 25-13. Beale had five kills in the set, Tai had the pair of aces and UHH hit .364.
The Vulcans never trailed in the second set. They fired out to a 5-1 margin, leading to a Wildcat timeout. Another Tai ace made it 9-5, and a Jessee ace pushed the lead to 17-9. The Vulcans scored the final five points of the set to put a 25-15 count on the scoreboard. They had eight perfect serves (aces) in the first two sets.
The Wildcats rallied back in the third set. They took an early 5-2 lead, weathered a Vulcan comeback to 12-12, and then scored four straight points to make it 16-12. They led by as many as seven points (23-16), survived another UH Hilo rally before settling for the win at 25-21. The CCAA team never trailed in the fourth set either, bolting out to a 8-5 and an 18-13 margin. Another Jessee ace cut the lead to 21-19, but the Wildcats scored four of the final five points to send the match to a rubber set (25-20).
The 'Cats maintained the momentum at the beginning of the fifth set, busting out to a 5-2 lead and a 9-5 margin. Chico still led at 11-7 before the Vulcans caught fire. A Tai kill and a Parisian ace tied things at 11-11. The Wildcats scored the next point (12-11), but that would be the end of their point production for the afternoon. A Tai kill (12-12), a Chico mishit (13-12), a Wade slide (14-12) and a final Beale put-away gave the match to the Vulcans, allowing for a short celebration before getting ready for tonight's match.
UH Hilo is 1-0 heading into the match with Minot State, while Chico State is now 1-1. The Wildcats defeated Minot State on Thursday night in five sets.
