Even if UH-Hilo is perfect the rest of the season, coach Tino Reyes says that might not be good enough for his volleyball team to remain in contention for the Pacific West Conference title after what transpired Monday night – the Vulcans were far from perfect against Fresno Pacific.
Even if UH-Hilo is perfect the rest of the season, coach Tino Reyes says that might not be good enough for his volleyball team to remain in contention for the Pacific West Conference title after what transpired Monday night – the Vulcans were far from perfect against Fresno Pacific.
Winners of five of six and with renewed postseason hopes, UH-Hilo started off a Northern California road trip by displaying some of their former inconsistencies. The Vulcans lost the serve-and-pass battle, hit an anemic .091 and were defeated 25-23, 25-27, 25-22, 25-15, falling three games behind first-place Dixie State in the loss column.
“We have to hope the conference winner finishes with six losses,” he said. “I’m not sure that is going to happen.”
One one hand it’s refreshing for Reyes that UH-Hilo can talk about postseason aspirations this late in the season. On the other hand, it has to be frustrating that the Vulcans (9-7, 7-6 PacWest) missed an opportunity to continue to surge with three winnable games left on the trip.
“I would hope we would find motivation in just trying to get better,” he said. “We didn’t do that.”
Not with the way UH-Hilo set the ball and spread its swings. Leading outside hitter Marley Strand-Nicolaisen took 47 hits and connected for 16 kills and a respectable .234 attack percentage. The number that jumped out to Reyes was the 62 swings taken by outside hitter Morgan Lees, who struggled, hitting only .048 en route to 10 kills.
Reyes equated the distribution to a point guard in basketball who is not passing the ball to the team’s best shooter.
“Why would we do that?” he said. “It’s a systemic problem.”
The Vulcans fought off a set point in Game 2 and tied the match on kills by Siera Green and Strand-Nicolaisen.
The momentum ended there.
UH-Hilo was hampered by a slow start in the third set and the Sunbirds (8-12, 8-7) won nine of the final 11 points in the fourth set to pull away, winning their fourth consecutive match and avenging a four-set loss in Hilo on Oct. 17.
Gabriela Macedo put down 17 kills for Fresno Pacific, which won 57 percent of its sideout points, according to Reyes.
‘That’s not winning volleyball for us,” he said.
Strand-Nicolaisen (10 digs) and Lee (16) each registered double-doubles, middle blockers Hannah Marang and Kyndra Trevino-Scott finished with seven and five kills, respectively, and libero Mina Grant tallied three aces and 27 digs.
The Vulcans head to the Bay Area for their next three matches. On Wednesday, they visit league cellar-dweller Holy Names (3-19, 1-12).