The passing remained crisp and sharp, and this time Marley Strand-Nicolaisen was the beneficiary.
Strand-Nicolaisen returned to form with 15 kills, and the University of Hawaii at Hilo sweept Chaminade 25-17, 25-20, 25-23 on Saturday night for their second consecutive home victory to begin Pacific West Conference play.
“Marley was good for us, Marley took the of load,” coach Tino Reyes said.
UHH (3-2) turned the tables on a Silverswords team that it lost to two weeks ago, and this time around neither team was strong offensively.
“We won the serving and passing battle,” Reyes said. “We can concentrate and focus for longer periods of time.”
Two nights after she came off the bench and watched Callie Aberle star in victory against Hawaii Pacific, Strand-Nicolaisen took 41 swings and hit .248. Aberle posted seven kills on 40 attempts, and Kyndra Trevino-Scott added six kills.
Strand-Nicolaisen and Aberle each contributed 11 digs for UHH, which won the hitting battle .183-.123.
“We used almost all the same players that we used the last (game),” Reyes said.
Cassie Rushlow led Chaminade (7-5, 0-2) with 11 kills. Hilo High graduate Waihilo Chartrand posted a match-high 19 digs to go along with a pair of aces.
The Silverswords’ Suncica Bakic tied Game 3 at 22-22 with an ace, but she followed that with a service error, and Kahea Vento-Rowe’s ace prompted match point.
After a kill by Madalene Barrett, Aberle and Shelby Harguess blocked Rushlow to end it.
The Silverswords were hurt by eight service errors.
Golf: Kyeton Littel (71) and Dalen Yamauchi (72) led the Vulcans to a fifth-place finish at the season-opening St. Martin’s Invitational in Olympia, Wash.
Littel and Yamauchi tied for 14th at 2-over 215 as the Vulcans (867) finished 29 strokes behind first-place Simon Fraser.
Nicholas Matsushima posted UHH’s best round of the day with a 70, tying for 18th at 5-over.
“That’s encouraging,” coach Earl Tamiya said. “Hopefully, he can carry that on to the next tournament.”
Also for the Vulcans, James Coon (73) finished tied for 38th at 10-over, Connor Graves (76) was at 13-over in a tie for 44th and David Tottori (72) tied for 47th at 14-over.
Western Washington’s Anthony Allen and British Columbia’s Evan Holmes claimed medalist honors at 6-under.
Cross country: Anna Mikkelsen placed eighth in the 5-kilometer run at the Brigham Young University-Hawaii Invitational.
The Vulcans came in fourth. Joining Mikkelsen (19 minutes, 50 seconds) were Jordan Concannon (19th, 21:16), Nina Kapuni (26th, 22:22), Shelby Tanaka (27th, 22:23), Kaylee Rapoza (29th, 22:48), Megan Washburn (30th, 22:51) and June Garrett (33rd, 24:09).
