HILO, Hawai'i – The nationally-ranked No. 9 Hawai'i Hilo Women's Soccer team surged for three scores in the span of seven minutes to burst past Fresno Pacific, 3-0, Saturday afternoon in Pacific West Conference action at the Vulcan Soccer Field.
Filippa Graneld (Stockholm, Sweden/Stockholms Idrottsgymnasium) got the scoring started shortly after halftime with a launch at the top-right nook of the goal from 86 feet out to put the Vulcans on the scoreboard in the 49th minute.
Just a few minutes later, the Vulcans were able to get behind the Sunbirds defenders thanks to a long ball from Jodi Lillie (Mililani, Hawai'i/Mililani HS) and some nifty passing as Daelenn Tokunaga (Waipahu, Hawai'i/Pearl City HS) found Grace VerHage (Otsego, Michigan/Otsego HS) through the seam for a 40-foot score.
To cap off the blink-of-an-eye scoring burst, Graneld took the ball deep one-on-one with a FPU defender before crossing it back through four Sunbirds players for Alyssa Padron (San Pedro, California/Palos Verdes HS) to knock in the shot from the top of the penalty area.
Hawai'i Hilo notched eight shots in each half to hold a 16-5 advantage over Fresno Pacific.
Lolo Retsky (Calabasas, California/Sierra Canyon School) had one save in goal for the Vulcans to notch her fifth complete shutout of the season.
For VerHage, it was her fourth score in PacWest play to climb to a tie at No. 1 in goals and points among all conference scorers.
Graneld also slid to a tie atop the conference with two game-winning goals.
What's Next
Hawai'i Hilo improved to 9-0-2 overall, 4-0-1 PacWest while Fresno Pacific fell to 3-2-0 PacWest (6-4-2 overall).
The Vulcans will play their final home game of the season Tuesday, Oct. 18 against Holy Names (0-5-0 PacWest, 6-7-0 overall).
It will also be Senior Day with 10 Vulcans being honored following Tuesday's match.
The Sunbirds will travel to O'ahu to take on Chaminade and Hawai'i Pacific.
