Chaminade senior libero Waihilo Chartrand’s subtle and smooth ball-handling volleyball skills helped make her last homecoming a rousing success.
Chaminade senior libero Waihilo Chartrand’s subtle and smooth ball-handling volleyball skills helped make her last homecoming a rousing success.
Behind mostly on-the-money passing, the Silverswords ran over UH-Hilo 25-20, 25-21, 25-18 in a PacWest match on Monday night, getting sweet revenge for a tough five-set loss last year.
Chartrand, a 2012 Hilo graduate, finished with a match-high 15 digs while freshman Emma Tecklenburg powered Chaminade’s offense with 14 kills on a .462 hitting percentage.
“Wai took care of the ball really well in serve-receive,” Chaminade coach Kahala Kabalis Hoke said. “Defensively, she got great reads as well. She showed that she’s a veteran player.”
Kim Spring added 12 kills while middle blocker Daisha LaBrie (seven kills, .455) and Cassie Rushlow (seven kills, .438) padded their stats for the Silverswords (9-8, 3-5 PacWest), who had a . 320 hitting clip.
Sierra Green (11 kills, .333) staked a claim to keep her starting spot for the Vuls (5-7, 3-4), who had a .163 hitting percentage and struggled all over the place. Division I transfer and outside hitter Haylee Roberts is expected to be cleared sometime this week.
Marley Strand-Nicolaisen (nine kills, .128), Kyndra Trevino-Scott (eight kills, .158) and Katrina Johnson (seven kills, .000) added to UHH’s anemic attack.
If it makes the Vuls feel somewhat better, at least they smashed four kills on Chaminade overpasses. The Silverswords had no kill off UHH overpasses; then again, the visitors didn’t need much help.
The Vuls’ season-long woes were summarized in the 25-20 set loss: they couldn’t kick their bad habit of beating themselves.
After the Silverswords scored four straight points to take a 19-16 lead, they gave away the momentum with a service error, but the Vuls took that free gift and returned it with a service error of their own.
And to pile woe upon Mauna Kea mountain of woe, they had three consecutive hitting errors. Chaminade held a 23-17 lead and finished them off with relative easy, to the tune of a .343 hitting clip (16 kills on 35 swings with just four errors).
UHH hit only .095, often taking uncomfortable swings because of shaky passing in both serve-receive and transition plays to setter Sienna Davis.
In the 25-21 second set loss, Vul libero Mina Grant gave away costly points on both defense and offense, sort of the definition of a double whammy.
Chaminade took aim at her from the service line, and Grant shanked a pass in serve-receive. That gave the Silverswords a nice 23-20 lead.
But Johnson knocked down a shot to briefly stop the bleeding.
Grant, a sophomore libero, stepped to the service line and hit the ball into the net. Then Chaminade produced a double-team block, another UHH unforced error in the books, for game point.
Through two sets, the Silverswords had an impressive .359 hitting percentage; Tecklenburg led the way with 10 kills on a .667 clip. UHH was at .188 with 12 errors, twice as many as Chaminade.
During that two-game span, Chaminade had far more digs, 40-25. Chartrand led the defensive coverage with 11 digs; UHH’s Grant had seven digs and finished with 14 digs.
In the 25-18 third set, it was ugly, perhaps the only fitting description for UHH’s down-the-stretch collapse.
Down 18-17, Spring hit a well-placed tip shot for a tie. Then the Vuls gave away three free points on unforced errors (two hitting and a block).
From there, Tecklenburg polished off UHH. She knocked down a kill, Spring served an ace, and Tecklenburg ripped a shot off a free ball and turned the lights out with another kill off a rebound.
Also in attendance of 377 fans, besides Chartrand’s legion of supporters, was Kabalis Hoke’s mom, former UHH great and NAIA Hall of Famer Carla Carpenter-Kabalis.
Asked what it’s like to have a Hall of Famer watching with technical eagle eyes, the daughter had a typical answer.
“There are high expectations to live up to,” she said.
However, the daughter is making her mom proud.
Kabalis Hoke is in her fifth season as coach, and each year Chaminade has finished with a better record.
“Chaminade was a losing program, but it’s really about changing the mindset,” she said. “It’s believing you’re a championship team and recruiting a lot of talent. Our motto is Cham on the rise. We put that in our first year.”
From all accounts, Kabalis Hoke’s motto definitely appears to be working.