UH-Hilo Women’s Volleyball Wraps Up Play at Hawai‘i-Alaska Challenge

The University of Hawai‘i at Hilo women’s volleyball team on Saturday, Aug. 20, was dropped in straight sets by the University of Alaska Anchorage to wrap up the two-day season-opening Hawai‘i-Alaska Challenge at Hawai‘i Pacific University’s The Shark Tank on O’ahu.

The Vulcans lost the first set 25-18, the second set 25-9 and the third set 25-17. UH-Hilo had 25 attacking errors and 13 reception errors.

Both teams traded points in the opening set with seven ties as UH-Hilo looked primed to pull away after a Samara Cruz kill and back-to-back aces by Kamryn Childs to take a three-point lead. But the Seawolves managed to string together clusters of points to flip the score and the set.

From there, it was all Seawolves as they went on separate point runs of seven and eight points in the second set with a five-point run in the final frame to take the sweep.

Cruz led the way for the Vulcans with five kills followed by four each from Chloe Culanding, Nikki Logan and Sophia Charpentier. Cruz also factored in on two blocks as Childs contributed on a total of three. Freshman Emerson Reinke led the team with 14 assists for double-digit performances in both matches to open the season.

In the third set, senior setter Kendall Kott became the Vulcans’ all-time leader in career assists at 2,834. The Shingle Springs, Calif., native matched the career-mark with four assists in the opening set then finally become No. 1 with the Vulcans’ opening point in the third set on a successful pass to Cruz for the kill.

Kott finished the match with seven assists and one dig.

She had also previously set the program’s single-season assists record with 1,274 in 2019 during her freshman year.

UH-Hilo returns to O‘ahu next weekend for a two-day, four-game slate during the Magic Island Hawai‘i Classic at the Hawai‘i Convention Center.