Box Score LAIE, Hawaii (November 14, 2015)—The Hawaii Pacific women's volleyball team needed a big win to ends its recent slide, and it got one Saturday evening.
The Sharks battled back to beat BYU-Hawaii 14-25, 25-18, 25-19, 25-23 in a PacWest Conference matchup at the Cannon Activities Center. The win was the first in Laie for the Sharks in 10 years.
The Seasiders had an outside shot at overtaking Dixie State for the conference title, but HPU's win ended those championship hopes. The visiting squad had lost eight of its last 10 matches prior to knocking off BYU-Hawaii.
"It's not only big to win at BYU-Hawaii, but to defeat our longtime rival and keep them from winning the conference crown is huge," said HPU skipper
Daryl Kapis.
The Sharks (14-12, 9-9 PacWest) received 15 kills from senior
Elizabeth Culpepper, while setter
Tenika Wentworth notched 34 assists and chipped in 12 digs, two blocks and two kills. Kamehameha product
Pomai Recca added 10 kills, 10 digs and six blocks, and
Carson Pyle posted 11 kills and eight total blocks. Senior defensive specialist
Amanda Moriarty racked up 23 digs.
"We were very prepared for what BYU-Hawaii was capable of and our defense, which has really been improving over the week, really showed," said Kapis. "
Carson Pyle did an amazing job, hitting .458 with zero errors. We wouldn't have been able to feed the middles as much as we did without great ball control."
The Seasiders (14-12, 12-6) were led by Kathleen Collette's 15 kills, and were out-blocked by HPU, 14-2.
HPU wraps up its season with home matches on Nov. 20 and 21 against UH Hilo and Chaminade at Saint Andrew's Priory, with first serves slated for 7 and 6 p.m.
