UHH VB Extends Winning Streak With Sweep of NDNU

The University of Hawai`i at Hilo women’s volleyball team picked up its third straight victory Wednesday night with a clean sweep of conference foe Notre Dame de Namur.

Set scores were 25-14, 25-18, 25-22.

“I think we’re getting better,” said UH-Hilo head coach Tino Reyes after the match. “I hope we can get better tomorrow in practice and see what we do in our last home match.”

A major key to the Vulcans’ winning streak has been balance in the offensive attack. Freshman Marley Strand-Nicolaisen and Kyndra Trevino-Scott collected 14 and 10 kills, respectively, to pace an attack that picked up 39 kills and hit .259. Junior Callie Aberle added eight kills.

Notre Dame de Namur (5-18 overall, 2-12 PacWest) contributed to its demise in the first set, hitting -.103 with six kills and nine errors. On the other side of the net, UH-Hilo limited its mistakes to just four attack errors and three service errors, a stat that Reyes believes is key to his team’s late success.

“Monday we had eight (errors) in the first game. Those are free points,” Reyes said. “We’re not very big so we’ve got to hit the ball high.”

UH-Hilo (9-11, 4-11) started the second frame on a 5-0 run, but the Argonauts brought a 5-0 run of their own, paced by a pair of kills by Dominique Tarrant, to close to within one at 10-9. The Vulcans pulled away again with a 9-4 run to open up a 19-13 lead that the visitors could not erase.

NDNU held a three point lead in the third set and led 22-20, but gave its hopes of extending the match away by giving up five consecutive points to end the match. Callan Finney’s service error was followed by an ace from Aberle to tie the set. From there, the freshman duo of Strand-Nicolaisen and Trevino-Scott combined to finish the next three points and terminate the match.

Tarrant led the Argonauts with nine kills while hitting .051. NDNU hit .102 for the match with 32 kills.

UH-Hilo wraps up its home schedule with a 3:00 p.m. match Sunday against Holy Names University. It’s the final home match for Kelia Parilla, the lone senior on the Vulcans’ squad.

“Parilla has been a wonderful ambassador, not just for the volleyball team, but for the university,” said Reyes. “She just got in this fall in the College of Pharmacy and she’s working toward that degree and she’s just a wonderful person. I hope people will come out and cheer her on.”

Notre Dame de Namur 14 18 22 – 0

Hawai`i Hilo 25 25 25 – 3