With three main guns out injured, the UH-Hilo volleyball team continues to suffer losses to opponents that aren’t exactly PacWest powerhouses and foes that resemble one.
With three main guns out injured, the UH-Hilo volleyball team continues to suffer losses to opponents that aren’t exactly PacWest powerhouses and foes that resemble one.
Concordia looked like one, took advantage of the depleted Vulcans and easily swept 25-20, 25-11, 25-17 on Monday night at UHH gym.
UHH was without its top three hitters in Siera Green (knee), Lucee Fitzgerald (ankle), and Randi Hunter (knee).
The Vulcans (8-13, 5-9 PacWest) have lost five in a row, and it doesn’t get any easier to conclude coach Gene Krieger’s debut season.
“It’s pretty hard when your two starting outside hitters and right-side hitter are all out,” he said. “They’re our main guns.”
The Vulcans would have to go undefeated in their last six matches to finish at 14-13, which would be the program’s first winning season since 2011, also the last postseason appearance. That would be against very difficult odds.
UHH is 10th in the 14-team conference and still left are matches against No. 1 Cal Baptist, No. 2 Azusa Pacific, No. 4 Concordia again, and No. 6 Dixie State.
Krieger had a philosophical take on his team’s situation.
“We’re trying to look at the big picture. The more we can learn, the better it will prepare us for next year,” he said. “We just have to keep building.”
Without Green, the Vuls have also lost to No. 5 Dominican (four sets), No. 9 Chaminade (three sets), and No. 7 Notre Dame de Namur (four sets) during their skid.
Concordia (14-8, 10-5) has won its last 10 and was sparked by 6-foot-1 Rachel Flynn, who entered the match averaging 3.82 points per set (kills, blocks, aces) and has a .231 hitting percentage.
Of course, Concordia is not your ordinary No. 4 team. The Eagles are the defending conference champs, and once they got warmed up after a sluggish first set they dropped the hammer on the firepower-deficient Vuls.
Flynn finished with 10 kills and hit .292, and opposite Cindy Tran also had 10 kills and hit .500 to lead Concordia, which outhit UHH, .267-.085, and had far more kills, 42-24.
Kiley Davis (seven kills, .500) and Katrina Johnson (seven kills, .211) led UHH.
In Game 1, the Vuls hung tough and trailed 19-18 but committed a serving error and lost momentum. The Eagles went on a three-point, mini-run, took a 23-18 lead before Brown’s tool shot for set point.
In the second set, UHH jumped to a 3-0 lead. Then it was pretty much all downhill from there. Concordia countered with a 14-point run, during which Flynn showed why she’ll likely be a PacWest three-time, first-team pick.
She doesn’t have a rocket arm but shoots balls between a block’s seams. Flynn had five kills on 10 swings with one error for a .400 hitting clip, powering the Eagles, who categorically outhit UHH, .321to negative .118 in the set.
Concordia also exposed UHH’s other weakness: serve-receive passing. The Eagles had four aces, including three during their 14-point run. The Vulcans had just one ace in Game 2. The Eagles finished with more aces than UHH, 8-2.
In Game 3, the Eagles bolted to a 7-0 lead, and a handful of Concordia parents got a good cheer when Kyra Auten knocked down a kill and heard her name over the speakers. Earlier, the UHH public address pronounced her last name as “Austin.”
During their winning streak, the Eagles from Irvine, Calif., have been tomato-can kicking opponents off the court. They either swept or went to four sets against PacWest foes, except for Azusa Pacific, which was a five-set win. Flynn cranked 24 kills and hit .273.
That 2011 season seems so long ago and was also the senior season for Hilary Hurley, the greatest two-sport Vulcan in school history. She was a PacWest conference player of the year in volleyball and a first-team pick for basketball.
The UHH volleyball program hasn’t been nearly as competitive since she left, though Marley Strand-Nicolaisen was a PacWest first-team selection last year. No other Vulcan was selected.
Meanwhile, the Vuls sorely miss Green, who drives the team bus just like Flynn does for the Eagles.
In 17 matches, Green is averaging 3.80 pps and is hitting .213. In 14 matches, Fitzgerald is next at 2.65 and has a .136 hitting clip.
The Vuls also sorely miss Fitzgerald, too, and someone with any teaspoon of firepower on the outside and, most importantly, their health.