Vulcans’ volleyball season ends
HONOLULU – After clawing out of a 2-0 hole, the UH-Hilo Women’s Volleyball team dropped a tough fifth set to HPU in a 3-2 loss (20-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-18, 8-15) Saturday evening in Pacific West Conference play at The Shark Tank to close out the regular season.
It was the seventh five-set marathon of the season as the Vulcans found themselves on the other side of victory after the Sharks managed to break away from an 8-7 score to tally seven of the last eight points of the final frame and the match.
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The first two sets also saw similar endings with HPU managing to extend on a 20-19 lead by taking five of the last six points for the win. Set 2 was a tough one to swallow for the Vulcans as they held a 23-19 lead but saw it evaporate as the Sharks mustered up six straight scores to go up 2-0 in the match.
UH-Hilo heated up to rally back to even the match at 2-2 before falling in the final frame.
Samara Cruz put down a season-high 19 kills (.313) along with 10 digs for her sixth double-double on the year.
Raelee Samio finished with 10 kills and three blocks and Chase Koepke added nine kills and five blocks.
HPU finished with a 10-3 advantage in service aces.
UH-Hilo moved to 12-16 overall (9-11 PacWest) while HPU moved to a 5-15 conference record (5-19 overall).
The Vulcans finish the regular season at a three-way tie for sixth place in the PacWest Conference standings.
