Vulcans volleyball team wins home opener against HPU

The University of Hawaii at Hilo women’s volleyball team got their first win by taking down Hawaii Pacific in four sets Saturday evening at Vulcan Gymnasium to open the Pacific West Conference season at 1-0.

After taking the opening set, the Vulcans were met with tougher resistance from the Sharks as set two was a two-point win followed by HPU flipping the score to take the third frame before the final back-and-forth pendulum swinging of set four. UH-Hilo ultimately came out on top by scores of 25-13, 25-23, 14-25 and 25-23.

“We know we’re going to be in a lot of really close games this year. We don’t have a big margin for error,” UH-Hilo Head Coach Chris Leonard said. “It got a little more interesting in sets three and four than I think we were anticipating after the first set. To HPU’s credit, they got better over the course of that match, but we found a way to get it done.”

The final set saw the Vulcans jump out to a 7-0 lead before the Sharks battled back with a six-point rally to tie the score up at 11. Both teams traded points as HPU squeaked ahead, but a huge five-point swing kept the Vulcans alive before closing out the match with three consecutive scores for the victory.

“Tonight was certainly a reminder of how much fun it is to play in front of a loud and vibrant crowd,” Leonard said. “For a lot of players, it was the first time they’ve had a chance to play in a really tight match in an environment like that. That can go one or two ways sometimes, but we were talking to them about, ‘hey enjoy the moment. This is why we play. This is fun.’”