After narrowly beating UH-Hilo in Hilo on Sept. 19, the BYU-Hawaii women’s volleyball team has followed up with two back-to-back home sweeps against Dominican and Academy of Art. The Lady Seasiders found themselves starting conference play 3-0.
This comes after a preseason that saw the Lady Seasiders struggle, going 2-5. “We have been doing a much better job on finishing our attacks and being consistent throughout the match,” said head coach Mona Ah Hoy.
Against Academy of Art, Malary Reid and Michelle Chen led the team to a dominating sweep, 25-9, 25-16, and 25-17. Chen led the Lady Seasiders with five blocks, 36 assists and two kills. Reid added four more blocks along with six kills. Hitters Kathleen Kalougata and Leilani Adolpho were dominate as well, as they finished with 12 and 11 kills respectively.
After a dominant first set, Academy of Art jumped out to a 6-3 lead early on in the second set. However, after a pair of kills by Sinamoni Tonga and an ace by Reid, the Lady Seasiders tied the match 7-7. After that point it was all BYU–Hawaii as Kalougata recorded two kills and Chen added two aces during a 7-point run that put the Lady Seasiders up 19-11. Brittany Waite ended the set with two kills.
In the last set younger players got to see action as the Lady Seasiders cruised.
The day before saw the Lady Seasiders narrowly sweep visiting Dominican. After a dominate first set in which the Lady Seasiders won 25-11 and jumping out to a dominate lead in the second set it looked as though BYU–Hawaii would win the match comfortably. However, Dominican showed some serious resilience in the second set coming back from five down to close the Lady Seasiders’ lead 20-19.
They continued to put pressure on BYU–Hawaii swapping point before Kalougata ended the set with clutch back-to-back kills, giving BYU–Hawaii the 28-26 win.
The third set saw the two teams swap scores until Dominican took their first lead of the match at 17-16. Dominican continued to have their noses in front and looked like they would push a fourth set as they led 24-22. However, Adolpho came up clutch for the Lady Seasiders as she took control of the set with back-to-back kills to tie the match.
After some more back and forth between the two teams, BYU–Hawaii closed out the match, 28-26.“We still have a lot we can work on and we will have a real challenge against Chaminade,” said Coach Ah Hoy.
The Lady Seasiders will look now to continue their undefeated conference run as they face inter-state rival Chaminade at the Cannon Activities Center Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 7:30 p.m.