Volleyball: Hot-hitting Vulcans hammer Concordia

UH-Hilo's Ashton Jessee.
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The UH-Hilo volleyball team had one of those days when almost everything went right.

The Vulcans hit .352 and pummeled Concordia 26-24, 25-16, 25-16 in a PacWest match on Wednesday at Irvine, Calif., where the Eagles put up an early fight then faded.

Concordia (4-10, 3-3 PacWest) was picked to finish third in the preseason poll; UHH (7-3, 3-1) was voted to finish fifth.

Bria Beale just missed a double-double with nine kills and 10 digs. She hit .438, and Evelin Solyomvari (eight kills, .217) was the only Vulcan to not hit over .300. However, she had five blocks.

Ashton Jessee (seven kills, .600) also had five blocks for the Vuls, who outblocked Concordia, 9-2. Kiley Davis (six kills, .400) added four stuffs, and Alexandria Parisian (12 kills, .321) added two blocks.

Mina Grant led UHH with 13 digs, and freshman setter Maile Powell added eight digs and had 19 assists.

Patiene O’Neal had seven kills but hit .050 to lead the Eagles, who finished with a .075 hitting clip.

Only the first set was competitive.

UHH had a serving error and hitting error to hand Concordia a 24-23 lead. But Parisian’s kill tied it 24-24, and the Eagles followed with two hitting errors.

Concordia, which finished 18-9 last season, had just 28 kills and 20 hitting errors. UHH teed off for 47 kills and had just nine hitting miscues.

UHH plays Biola (8-4, 4-1), picked second in the poll, on Thursday and Point Loma (6-6, 3-2) Saturday.