UH-Hilo coach Tino Reyes probably won’t get many congratulatory phone calls, but he knows he did his Pacific West Conference colleagues a solid.
A few days after he proclaimed anybody could beat anybody in the wide-open PacWest, the Vulcans did just that, dropping league front-runner Cal Baptist in four sets Saturday night at UH-Hilo gym. The 13-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-18 victory further tightened the standings, with five teams within two games of first place.
“I can tell you there are a bunch of teams that are happy with this result,” Reyes said. “Starting with us.”
After a slow start by outside hitter Marley Strand-Nicolaisen, who made five attack errors in the first set, the Vulcans (8-8, 6-5 Pac West) received peak production from two middle blockers. Junior Kyndra Trevino-Scott enjoyed her best match of the season with nine kills, and Hannah Marang tallied nine kills on .391 hitting with four blocks.
“The stars sort of aligned,” Reyes said. “We’ve been working all year to get those type of numbers; 20 swings each.
“We kind of knew from watching all the video that the middles were only going to have to go up against one blocker.”
He said Strand-Nicolaisen did well to salvage a .150 hitting percentage and along with 15 kills she posted five aces, including one that ended a tight fourth set.
Filling in for injured setter Sienna Davis, Elizabeth Nizzoli finished with 37 assists.
Coming off wins at BYU-Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific the previous two days, Cal Baptist (17-4, 10-3) saw its six-match winning streak end.
The Vulcans are only three games out of first place themselves, but first they can make a bid to move into the top half of the 14-team conference at 7 p.m. Wednesday when they finish a five-match homestand against Chaminade (7-4). The Vulcans beat the Silverswords in five sets earlier this season in Honolulu.
“I’ll have to remind the girls of that,” Reyes said. “That will help their confidence.”
Women’s golf
The Lady Vulcans host the ninth annual Dennis Rose Intercollegiate looking to end a drought.
The tournament runs Monday and Tuesday at Waikoloa Beach Resort’s Beach Course, and UH-Hilo hasn’t won the event since 2006, when it was held at Mauna Lani. The Vulcans’ Kiilani Matsuyoshi took medallist honors that year.
Senior Kristen Sawada figures to be UH-Hilo’s best hopeful this season. Sawada shot in the 70s all three days last week at the Rainbow Wahine Invitational, finishing at 12-over.
Cross-country
The Vulcans finished 13th of 14 teams Saturday at the PacWest championships, an event Cal Baptist won on its home course.
Anna Baker-Mikkelsen led UH-Hilo in 65th, finishing the 6-kilometer course in 25:30.81. Freshman Crystal Baysa (25:49.20) was 69th; June Garrett’s 27:23.38 was 79th. Also competing for UH-Hilo were Kaylee Rapoza (83rd, 29:13.42), Riley Arroyo (89th, 31:54.71) and Abby Mahnke (98th, 33:32.62).
BYU-Hawaii’s Lindi Young prevailed in 24:06.90.
