On a night when it already was playing with one arm tied behind its back, slow and steady did not serve the University of Hawaii at Hilo well.
On a night when it already was playing with one arm tied behind its back, slow and steady did not serve the University of Hawaii at Hilo well.
Fresno Pacific may have been more error-prone with its serve, but its aggressiveness made all the difference Thursday night during a 23-25, 25-23, 25-16, 19-25, 15-12 victory at the Vulcans’ gym.
“We didn’t win the serve-and-pass battle,” Vulcans coach Tino Reyes said.
The Vulcans (5-11, 4-9 Pacific West Conference) fell to 1-4 in five-set matches this season, including a loss at Fresno Pacific earlier this month.
“I’m proud of the way the kids played, but we don’t make plays when we need to,” Reyes said,
While the Vulcans were a plus-one (three aces, two errors) in serve-receive, the Sunbirds (14-6, 8-3) were minus-three (10, 13).
Reyes will take the latter stat line anytime.
“It’s the other serves that went in where they graded out higher,” he said.
That added insult to injury, because the Vulcans got ample production from their hitters, even with sophomore Marley Strand-Nicolaisen limited to the back row because of a injury.
Callie Aberle smoked a match-high 23 kills on 55 swings and .327 hitting, Morgan Lees (.304) notched eight kills, and Stacey Witt (.375) and Sienna Davis (.455) each added six.
Rupia Inck (.239) ripped 20 kills for the Sunbirds, while Morghan Williams (.366) and Kathleen Anderson (.387) also came up big with 19 and 13 kills, respectively. Gabriela Macedo also finished with 13 kills.
“Rupia is a nice player,” Reyes said. “But (Williams) and (Anderson) got away from us. We challenged the other girls to beat us, and they did.”
Williams erased the Vulcans’ last lead of the match with a kill that tied Game 5 at 10-10. Two points later, Lees’ kill forced another tie, but Williams gave Fresno Pacific the lead for good with a kill and two kills by Inck secured the Vulcans’ sixth loss in seven matches.
Four of those defeats have gone the distance, but that was of little consolation to Reyes.
“You can always look at a match and see a point that sets the tone for the game. We make mistakes in too many of those moments,” he said.
The homestand would appear to get easier for the Vulcans, who host Dominican (5-15, 3-9) at 7 p.m. Friday and Holy Names (1-19, 1-13) at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.