HILO, Hawai'i – Taylor Tullo, Raelee Samio and Chase Koepke combined to put down 21 kills without a single hitting error as Hawai'i Hilo Women's Volleyball welcomed Menlo to the Pacific West Conference with a straight-sets sweep (25-18, 25-23, 25-20) Saturday evening at the Vulcan Gymnasium.
Samio hit .538 on seven kills from the right side as Tullo posted nine kills, 10 digs and four service aces. Samara Cruz led with a double-double of 13 kills and 11 digs.
"Raelee's really put together a nice couple of matches for us," Hawai'i Hilo head coach Chris Leonard said. "She's made some big improvements and just had an outstanding night.
"Team was a lot sharper. We gave up a few too many receive errors, and that's something we'll continue to work on in the practice gym, but overall, just a much smoother performance. We've been the team that makes the scramble plays and extends rallies, and tonight I think we did that well. We kept swinging until we got a kill rather than swinging until we made an error."
The Vulcans opened the PacWest Conference season with a 1-1 homestand this past weekend, opening with a five-set loss to Academy of Art last Thursday night.
"Our goal every time we get on the court is to be a little bit better than we were the time before," Leonard said. "We had a very disappointing loss in the last one, but that's the kind of league it is this year. There's a lot of parity around the league. I think we can compete with anyone in the conference, but we can be challenged by anyone in the conference if we're not sharp."
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Hawai'i Hilo moved to 1-1 in the PacWest (6-6 overall) as Menlo moved to an 0-2 conference record (3-6 overall).
The Vulcans will have the week off from competition before returning to Northern California next weekend for a four-game road slate through Dominican (Sept. 29), Academy of Art (Oct. 1), Menlo (Oct. 3) and Jessup (Oct. 5).
"I think it'll be beneficial that we don't have a match for a handful of days coming off an ambitious preseason with a lot of matches in a short amount of time," Leonard said. "Giving our athletes a little bit of time to rest and recover is super important. This is one of the longer breaks we've had without playing."
