As good as UH-Hilo’s Bria Beale was in the first set, Biola’s Christina DenBoer was able to match her when it counted.
DenBoer ensured their were no five-set heroics for the Vulcans this time, blasting eight of her 18 kills in the fourth set Friday as the Eagles tightened their grip on second place in the Pacific West Conference with a 24-26, 25-19, 26-24, 25-19 victory at UH-Hilo gym.
Biola (16-5, 12-2) swept its three island stops and has won eight in a row since the Vulcans (12-5, 8-3) stunned them Sept. 20 and stormed the court after a dramatic Game 5.
“It is a phenomenal accomplishment for this team, to go 3-0 in Hawaii is so hard,” said coach Aaron Seltzer in a release. “I am so proud of them. We got some positive momentum even though we didn’t win game one. Then the key was being able to win Game 3.”
The Vuls battled back to force eight ties in the third set, but kills by DenBoer and Karly Dantuma (13 kills) closed it out for the Eagles.
UHH, which was outblocked 13-6, will try to regroup Sunday in a 3 p.m. match against Concordia to conclude a six-match homestand.
Beale put down eight of her 15 kills in the first set and added 10 digs, though she also wound up with 10 errors, hitting just .114.
“She’s a phenomenal player,” Seltzer said. “She was great all night. Early on we could not do anything against her.
“We switched things up and put someone different on her for game two. We even then couldn’t really stop her, but she did stop herself a bit.”
The Vuls watched with glee from last week as Biola took down first-place Azusa Pacific, moving them ever so closer to first.On Friday night, Evelin Solyomvari (.146) also posted 15 kills each and Alexandria Parisian added 14 on .313 hitting, but UHH lost for the second time in three matches and fell into fourth place, one-half game behind Point Loma (9-3).
Senior libero Mina Grant missed her third consecutive match with a shoulder injury, and in her absence Kaila Lizama contributed 26 digs. Setter Basia Sauni had three aces and 25 assists and middle Ashton Jessee went for six kills and three blocks.
Biola middle Sierra Bauder entered as the Division II leader in hitting percentage and almost hit her mark with nine kills and a .421 percentage, and she added seven blocks.
Concordia’s Eagles won’t enter as hot as Biola’s. Concordia (7-14, 4-10) is 0-2 on in Hawaii, including a four-set loss to Hawaii Pacific on Friday night.
• Wahine win
Norene Iosia and Angel Gaskin led the way with 12 kills apiece, and Sarah Liva added 11 and hit a team-high .381 as Hawaii beat Long Beach State 25-22, 25-19, 23-25, 25-20 in Honolulu.
Iosia recorded her fourth triple-double of the season, adding 26 assists and 11 digs, for UH (10-6, 6-1 Big West), which hosts CSUN on Saturday night.