CUH Volleyball Loses, Snapping 7-Match Winning Streak Vs. Hilo

The Chaminade University of Honolulu women’s volleyball team was defeated by the University of Hawai’i at Hilo (25-16, 25-20, 20-25, 25-27, 15-12) on Sunday afternoon at McCabe Gymnasium. The Vulcans (now No. 3 in the PacWest Conference with an 18-6 overall record and 13-3 conference mark) left the Silverswords with a 13-2 conference record (19-4 overall) with only a half game cushion above second-place Azusa Pacific University.

Chaminade had beaten Hilo the past four years (seven matches). But for the first time since Sept. 26, 2015, this streak was broken. A clearly frustrated CUH head women’s volleyball coach Kahala Kabalis Hoke and her team declined to comment after the match.

Senior outside hitter Emma Tecklenburg led the ‘Swords with 19 kills and eight errors on 49 attempts. Behind her was freshman outside hitter Annah Rivera with 15 kills, seven errors, and 52 attempts. Finally, junior right-side hitter Rachel Reedy (named PacWest Player of the Week three times this season) played another great game with 14 kills, eight errors, and 34 attempts. 

In the fourth set, the back-and-forth affair became incredibly tight as the teams traded points. The set featured 12 ties and eight lead changes. With the score tied at 24-all, Tecklenburg’s hitting error gave Hilo the serve for the match at 25-24. But she rebounded with a kill to knot the score at 25. And the Swords reeled off back-to-back points (a Kaila Lazama service ace followed by a Hilo hitting error) to force a fifth and deciding set.

Hilo jumped out to an early lead, but CUH tied it up at 8-8. But three CUH hitting errors doomed the Swords as Hilo pulled away to seal the victory.

This was an incredibly close match. There were 151 total points scored but only three points separated the score for each team (77 for Hilo, 74 for Chaminade). The Swords actually had more kills (59) than Hilo (54), but Hilo’s total blocks (16 for the Vulcans and only nine for the ‘Swords) determined the outcome of the game.

Vulcan junior outside hitter Bria Beale played a fantastic game, totaling 21 kills out of her 61 attempts with only 11 errors. For 14 games in a row, Beale made a minimum of 12 kills and set a conference-record of 58 kills by the end of the week. These are just a couple achievements that have earned her PacWest Player of the Week. Other top players were junior outside hitter Amber Tai with 10 kills, five errors, and 28 attempts, sophomore opposite Alexandria Parisian with 12 kills, four errors, and 30 attempts, and 6-foot-3 freshman middle Emily Wade who had two solo blocks and nine block assists. She earned PacWest Defender of the Week for breaking her career record with 10 blocks against Azusa and 11 against CUH, as well as totaling 44 kills last week.

Moving forward, Chaminade will be playing Hawai’i Pacific University (No. 4 in the PacWest Conference standings) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at The Shark Tank at St. Francis High School. The last time the ‘Swords lost to the Sharks was at the season-ending match on Nov. 18, 2018. After sweeping HPU for the past two seasons with five straight wins, this will be a high-pressure match.

After, the women’s volleyball team will travel to California in a crucial road trip against four teams all ranking within the top 10 of the PacWest Conference: No. 2 Azusa Pacific (Nov. 11), No. T7 Concordia (Nov. 13), No. 5 Point Loma (Nov. 14), and No. 6 Biola (Nov. 16).