by FRESNO, Calif.—Junior Bria Beale had a season-high 20 kills and 14 digs in helping her team to a 25-19, 25-15, 30-28 win over Fresno Pacific on Monday night at the Special Events Center.
That means that the Vulcans have won back-to-back matches on this five-game road trip to improve to 2-2 in the Pacific West Conference and to 7-5 overall. They will continue this long northern California journey with a Wednesday night match at Holy Names (Oakland).
The Vulcans had big numbers all around in addition to Beale’s, especially for a three-set match. Amber Tai had 12 kills and nine digs, Alexandria Parisian (Chippewa/Cree) added 10 kills with a .381 hitting percentage, and Emily Wade was a beast at the net with four solo blocks and five total blocks. She also had nine kills.
Kendall Kott had 47 assists, Kaila Lizama equaled a career-high with 28 digs and Lucee Fitzgerald was in double figures with 13 digs.
The Sunbirds, who are now 2-13 overall and 1-5 in the PacWest, were led by Makena Ogas and Corinne Acosta’s nine kills each. Anastassiya Barakhoyeva had 15 digs for Fresno Pacific.
The Vulcans led from start to finish in the first set, jumping out to 5-1 and 9-3 leads before an FPU timeout. The Sunbirds then rallied back to 11-10, but the Vulcans would pull away again all the way to 24-16 before closing out at 25-19. UHH hit .371 in the set and Beale had seven of her kills in the first game.
The second set was close midway at 11-10, but it would be all Vulcans the rest of the way. UH Hilo would outscore the Sunbirds 14-5 the rest of the set as Beale had six more kills and Tai had five.
The home team battled back in the third set. There were countless ties in the game, including late in the contest. At 22-22, Beale put down back-to-back balls to give the Vulcans match point at 24-22. But FPU battled back to 24-24, staving off defeat for the time being. The Vulcans would have four more match points (six total) before closing out the 30-28 set. Wade and Tai had kills in that final run.
The Vulcans hit .279 for the match with 57 kills, and had 83 digs. The Sunbirds hit .123 with 32 kills and 68 digs.
