HILO, Hawai'i – Facing an eight-point deficit in Set 2, the Vulcans hit on nine consecutive points to flip the score on the way to victory as the Hawai'i Hilo Women's Volleyball team denied Westmont, 3-1, Friday evening in Pacific West Conference action at the Vulcan Gymnasium. Set scores were 25-17, 25-23, 15-25 and 25-20.
The Vulcans opened the match hitting .324 with a 72-percent sideout rate to take the one-set lead before digging themselves out of an eight-point hole to narrowly edge the Warriors in the second set. After dropping the third set, Hawai'i Hilo fended off a late Westmont push to close out the match victory in Set 4.
"Really proud of our team for fighting back," fifth-year Vulcans head coach Chris Leonard said. "It's one of the things that's been a Hallmark of this team over the last couple of years that even when we've been down, we never quit and just find a way to grind out point after point to get ourselves back into a game."
Three players finished with double-digit kills as Raelee Samio pounded set points in the opening and closing frames in addition to notching kills No. 14 and 15 during the crucial nine-point swing in Set 2.
"Really nice performance tonight on the right side by Raelee. She was strong at the net on defense and took some great swings for us on that side," Leonard said. "We spread the ball around pretty well and we were able to get some kills on the outside, the right side and in the middle. It was probably one of our more balanced performances of the season in that regard."
Friday's match was the first of three clumped matches in as many days, as well as being the first PacWest Conference contest against newcomer Westmont.
"We were looking forward to this matchup, it's a team that we've never played before. They're pretty big and physical at the net," Leonard said of the Warriors, who held a five-block advantage after nine total blocks. "I thought we did a nice job slowing down their outsides to keep them off balance a little bit. We won the serve and pass battle tonight — that was a real focus for us. We knew that that would be a strength of ours in this matchup."
STATS SHEET
- Isabella Hadaller (14), Taylor Tullo (10) and Raelee Samio (10) each totaled double-digit kills.
- Tani Hoke had four aces to go along with 19 digs as she inches toward the program's all-time career digs total of 1,564.
- Both teams were pretty evenly matched in stats across the board as the Vulcans narrowly finished with the edge in hitting percentage, and aces.
UP NEXT
Hawai'i Hilo moved to 8-9 overall (5-4 PacWest) while Westmont moved to a 5-6 conference record (8-10 overall).
The Vulcans will be right back in action Saturday evening to host Biola at 7 p.m. in the Vulcan Gymnasium. The first 800 fans will receive one free Pepsi-brand drink.
Hawai'i Hilo will have another short one-day layoff before Monday night's Round 2 matchup against Fresno Pacific.
ONLINE TICKETS
Single-game tickets are now available to be purchased online through Hawai'i Hilo Vulcans Athletics' recently launched online ticket platform in partnership with AudienceView Campus.
Tickets for all soccer, women's volleyball and men's and women's basketball home events are available at HiloAthletics.com/tickets.
