It was almost no contest a year ago, but it was a different story for the University of Hawaii Hilo on Saturday night when it battled Brigham Young University Hawaii to a five-set loss on the Vulcans’ floor in front of a scattering of alumni on hand for the occasion.
It was almost no contest a year ago, but it was a different story for the University of Hawaii Hilo on Saturday night when it battled Brigham Young University Hawaii to a five-set loss on the Vulcans’ floor in front of a scattering of alumni on hand for the occasion.
“They’re bigger and better this year,” said BYU-Hawaii Coach Mona Ah-Hoy after her Seasiders got away with a 23-25, 25-26, 25-27, 25-17, 16-14 victory that was the first Pacific West Conference match of the season for both squads.
A year ago, the Vulcans lost twice in three sets each time to the Seasiders but this one opened with 25-23 UH Hilo win in the first game, when the Vulcans were led by six kills from Morgan Lees and a dozen assists from Sienna Davis.
The match was preceded by a gathering of alumni arranged by UH-Hilo chancellor Donald Straney for the purpose of introducing as many alumni as possible to new athletics director Pat Guillen, just in his third week on the job.
“I’m enjoying it,” Guillen said, “but that’s not a surprise, I love these people, I love Hilo.”
There was a sense Saturday night that Hilo might be able to generate some affection for the volleyball team at UH-Hilo after its resurgent play against BYU-Hawaii.
“They left their hearts on the floor tonight,” said UH-Hilo coach Tino Reyes, “I think we all saw that, but we have to face it — we need to get better and I think with this group, we have a chance to do that.
“BYU played well tonight,” he said, “it”s kind of amazing that we were in the match, but we just played so hard, almost like they were trying to will themselves to a win.”
The Seasiders had two good sets, the second and fourth when they seemed to wear down the Vulcans as those two games wore on, but in the final set, it went down to the wire.
“We had some coaching issues,” Reyes said, “we substituted when we shouldn’t have, had somebody in the wrong place and it probably cost us a couple points, but that’s a coaching mistake and we will be able to correct it easily.”
Sienna Davis, a junior from Kamehameha-Maui, led UH Hilo with 32 assists and said the optimism is spreading throughout the team.
“Our goal has been to get one percent better every day, and we’re doing it,” Davis said. “The more we improve on the little things, the better it will be. We’re going to be a really good team this year.”
Morgan Lees led the Vulcans (2-2) 15 kills and Marley Strand-Nicolaisen finished with 12.
UH Hilo will try to get its first PacWest win and even its conference record Thursday when it hosts Academy of the Arts at 7 p.m.