SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The UH-Hilo women’s volleyball team played a pair of road matches on Wednesday and Thursday, first against Fresno Pacific and then against Dominican
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FPU 3- UHH 2
With both teams being no strangers to five-set matches, their head-to-head matchup was bound to go the distance as well. The Vulcans opened their northern California trip with a battle against Fresno Pacific, falling just short in five sets (25-20, 23-25, 14-25, 25-20, 13-25) in Pacific West Conference action Wednesday evening at the Special Events Center.
The Vulcans jumped out to a 6-1 lead early in the deciding set, but the Sunbirds managed to inch their way back to tie the score at 13-13 before taking the victory with the final two points.
It was a battle from the start for the Vulcans, falling behind big in the opening set before rallying for six straight points to make it a 16-16 score. After trading a few points, UH-Hilo rattled off five consecutive points to close it out, highlighted by three aces in a row from Kamryn Childs.
The Vulcans put down four blocks and just five kills in the first set as the Sunbirds committed a total of 15 errors.
The second set saw the Vulcans holding a narrow lead through the latter half of the frame, but FPU strung together five consecutive points — four of them on UH-Hilo errors — to gain momentum. After a tie at 23, the Sunbirds closed out the win with a block and a kill to even the match.
Fresno Pacific seemingly carried that momentum over to the third set. Despite UH-Hilo opening to a 4-0 lead, the Sunbirds scored 11 of the next 12 points and never looked back as they hit .400.
With the match on the line, the Vulcans’ Samara Cruz and Chase Koepke each put down five kills in the fourth set to help fuel a five-point run to pull away from an 11-11 score. The Vulcans later put away five of the last six points to force the fifth set.
Samara Cruz led with a season-high 16 kills (.350) as Chase Koepke added nine (.412) to go along with five total blocks. Taylor Tullo also totaled nine kills and had 11 digs.
The Sunbirds doubled up the Vulcans in service aces, 14-7. Catie Speas, McKenna Hughes and Cambria Waites each had three while Corinne Acosta led with four.
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UHH 3 -DUCA 0
The Vulcans broke an unlucky three-game skid with a 3-0 victory over Dominican in Pacific West Conference play Thursday evening at the Conlan Center. Set scores were 25-11, 25-13 and 25-16.
At two separate points in the match, the Vulcans slapped together scoring streaks of 11 and 13, the latter of which UH-Hilo used to close out Set 2 highlighted by seven kills from Samara Cruz and two aces from Taylor Tullo during that run.
Cruz led the Vulcans with 13 kills and five total aces — four of which came during the 11-point streak in the opening set.
Thursday’s win was the third sweep of the season.
Taylor Tullo followed with 12 kills (.524) and added to two blocks along with four digs.
Chase Koepke (.545) and Ralee Samio (.412) each added seven kills and combined on four total blocks.
The Vulcans finished the match hitting .381, highlighted by hitting .436 in Set 2.
UH-Hilo moved to 6-8 overall (3-3 PacWest) while Dominican moved to 0-14 (0-7 PacWest).
The Vulcans will conclude their Northern California trip today against Academy of Art (2-13 overall, 1-7 PacWest).
UH-Hilo will then return home for four games starting Oct. 14 against two-time defending champion Chaminade.
Single-game and season tickets are now available to be purchased online through UH-Hilo Vulcans Athletics’ recently launched online ticket platform in partnership with AudienceView Campus.
Tickets can be accessed at HiloAthletics.com/tickets.