Vulcan teams notch trio of victories

UH-Hilo’s women’s volleyball, women’s soccer and men’s soccer each notched victories on Thursday.

Volleyball

A long day and an even longer night, but a five-set thrilling victory in the end as the UH-Hilo Women’s Volleyball team slugged out a 3-2 win (19-25, 25-23, 25-22, 15-25, 15-11) over Concordia University Irvine in Pacific West Conference play Thursday evening at the Vulcan Gymnasium.

With momentum on the Vulcans side after taking Set 2 and Set 3, CUI seemingly sucked much of the energy out of the gym with a dominating 10-point Set 4 win to even the match at two sets apiece.

“I told the team in the last set, ‘This is why we play. Enjoy the moment. The gym is packed. The crowd is rocking. It’s a tied game in the fifth set. Enjoy this. Don’t feel stressed.’ Of course, it’s easier to do when you’re up a point instead of down a point,” fifth-year Vulcans head coach Chris Leonard said in a UH-Hilo press release. “I’ve said this before: we have the best home court advantage in the conference. Obviously Hawai‘i people love volleyball and we’re really thankful for the support. We feed off of that energy for sure.”

After falling behind two points at a 4-6 deficit, the Vulcans came roaring back to take a one-point lead. The Golden Eagles returned the favor after managing to string together three consecutive points, but two CUI attack errors, an ace by Baylee Goeas Galdeira and three thundering kills from Isabella Hadaller closed out the victory for the Vulcans.

“That last set could’ve gone either way,” Leonard said. “We had some really big kills from (Hadaller) down the stretch. To see her back on the court and seeing her become the player we thought she could be is exciting.

“We don’t quit. Really proud of our team,” Leonard continued. “We get to enjoy this for the moment and then try to refocus really quickly on the next two large tasks to deal with.”

Isabella Hadaller totaled 16 kills with 13 digs along with two total blocks.

Emerson Reinke chipped in four kills (.500), Kamryn Childs tallied 14 (.481) and Chase Koepke added 10 (.368).

CUI finished with a 13-7 blocking advantage up front and had a slight edge in hitting at .236.

UH-Hilo moved to 5-5 overall (2-0 PacWest) while CUI moved to 5-5 (1-1 PacWest).

The Vulcans will continue their first home stand by welcoming Southern California schools Point Loma (Sept. 23) and Azusa Pacific (Sept. 24).

Women’s soccer

The No. 8 UH-Hilo Women’s Soccer team posted three goals for a third consecutive match in a 3-0 shutout over Chaminade to close out the non-conference schedule Thursday afternoon at the Vulcan Soccer Field.

With the victory, the Vulcans also extended their regular-season unbeaten streak to 30 games dating back to Oct. 3, 2021.

Alyssa Padron also continued her scoring run to three straight games, this time finding the back of the net for the first two scores of the match.

“I was pretty open down the line and [Oceana Garcia] played me a beautiful one-touch ball into the box and I took a touch past the defender and hit its near post,” Padron said, whose goals came in the 39th and 48th minutes. “The second goal, I was played through and dribbled past the defenders. Just a nice and easy pass to the corner.”

Jazlynn Ellis, who assisted on the second Vulcans goal with a backwards pass, closed out the scoring with her first goal of the season after cleaning up a deflected shot by Alia Bournay.

The Vulcans were also coming off a short turnaround after a 3-1 win over HPU on Tuesday.

“Coming into this game, legs are heavy but we knew we had to get the results and we got a clean sheet,” Padron said. “The first half was pretty rough but I think we figured it out by the second half and that’s when we got our next two goals so I think the second half was a lot cleaner.”

UH-Hilo outshot Chaminade, 14-9, and 9-3 in shots on goal.

Vulcans goalkeepers Phoebe Barnes and Courtney Linn combined for a second team shutout of the season.

UH-Hilo moved to a 4-0-1 record (0-0-0 Pacific West Conference) while Chaminade moved to 2-2-2 (0-0-0 PacWest).

The Vulcans will head to the continent to Northern California to start Pacific West Conference play against Academy of Art (Sept. 25), Dominican (Sept. 28) and Fresno Pacific (Sept. 30).

UH-Hilo will return home Oct. 7 to host HPU to start a string of six home games.

Chaminade and UH-Hilo will play against Nov. 12 on O’ahu to close out the regular season.

Men’s soccer

Shudai Ito factored into both of the Vulcans’ goals after an explosive start carried the UH-Hilo Men’s Soccer team all the way through to a 2-0 victory over Chaminade Thursday afternoon in non-conference action at the Vulcan Soccer Field.

Gabriel Gallardo struck first in the fourth minute of the game after Ito sent a long ball just beyond midfield toward the goal with Gallardo and the Chaminade keeper colliding about 30 yards out as the ball skipped through for the score.

A few minutes later, Aidan Santos sent another long ball toward the goal and Gallardo was fouled in the penalty box by Chaminade’s Daniel Villalva. Ito took the penalty kick and sent it to the back of the net through the right side.

“I think that we’re enjoying it, we’re improving, we’re trying to drive the process and really push the envelope here and, yeah, it’s been great,” UH-Hilo acting head coach Diego Marroquin said.

The Vulcans have had a quick turnaround after splitting a two-day road trip to Southern California against CSU San Marcos and CSU Dominguez Hills this past weekend. UH-Hilo will be back on a plane, this time to Northern California, to start Pacific West Conference play next Monday.

“I mean the travel is definitely brutal,” Marroquin said. “It’s a different beast so I think the great thing here is we have a lot of squad depth. We definitely rotated players in today and they proved and showed that they’re at the level and are pushing for more opportunity so I think as a staff we’re incredibly pleased.”

The score remained through the final 80 minutes as the Vulcans posted a third clean sheet of the season.

Sophomore Adam Frank made his first appearance of the season with the start and first career win at goalkeeper after recording four saves.

UH-Hilo moved to 3-2-0 while Chaminade moved to an 0-4-1 record.

The Vulcans will head back to the continent to Northern California to start Pacific West Conference play against Academy of Art (Sept. 25), Dominican (Sept. 28) and Fresno Pacific (Sept. 30).

UH-Hilo will return home and island hop to O’ahu to close out the non-conference slate against HPU on Oct. 4 before hosting the Sharks Oct. 7 in PacWest Conference play.

Chaminade and UH-Hilo will play against Nov. 12 on O’ahu to close out the regular season.