The Brigham Young-Hawaii volleyball team hadn’t lost a match in nearly nine weeks. But it took losing its first set in nine matches to remind the Seasiders what it takes to keep winning.
Behind 21 kills from freshman Shih Ting Chen and a relentless defense anchored by Losaline Pula’s 25 digs, BYU-Hawaii kept its season alive with a 25-21, 25-21, 15-25, 30-28 victory over Seattle Pacific in the NCAA II West Regional in San Bernardino, Calif.
The fourth-seeded Seasiders (19-3) take a 16-match winning streak into today’s semifinal against host and top-ranked Cal State San Bernardino (28-0) at 5:30 p.m. Hawaii time.
BYUH was the only PacWest team to advance. Yesterday, Hawaii-Hilo’s season ended with a 25-11, 19-25, 25-22, 25-23 loss to No. 3 Sonoma State (22-6) and Grand Canyon (22-7) was swept by No. 15 UC San Diego (22-5), 25-20, 25-19, 25-21.
"It’s nice that we can finally win one here. The last few years we’ve come here and been out after the first game," BYUH coach Wilfred Navalta said. "At least we’re playing the second night."
The Seasiders had swept their previous nine matches and hadn’t dropped a set since Oct. 4, when they rallied past Cal Baptist in five on the road. After winning the first two sets, BYUH found itself down 7-1 to the Falcons in Set 3 and never recovered.
In Set 4, it was the Seasiders who took a 7-1 lead only to have the Falcons rally behind seniors Lindsey Wodrich (24 kills) and Anna Herold (school-record 46 digs).
SPU caught BYUH at 13, setting off a seesaw battle that saw the lead change six times with eight ties.
The Falcons were poised to send it to five when they went ahead 24-23 on a Seasiders serving error. BYUH held off two set points, tying it on a kill by Chen. Each team had two chances to end it, the last for the Falcons at 28-27.
Junior hitter Lauren Hagemeyer put down her 20th kill to tie it for the last time. BYUH closed it out on sophomore middle Erh Fang Hsu’s 11th kill and an ace by junior middle Courtney Skaggs.
Freshman setter Ying Chun Chen finished with 50 assists, 2 aces and 13 digs. Shih Ting Chen also had a double-double (21 kills, 25 digs).
Sonoma State 3, Hawaii-Hilo 1
Two words: bad rotation. The sixth-seeded Vulcans were outscored 9-1 at the end of Set 3 and never regained the momentum against the third-seeded Seawolves.
"They were just better than us," Vulcans coach Tino Reyes said of the Seawolves. "They didn’t make many mistakes.
"At the end of Set 3, we missed a serve, lost the longest rally I’ve even been involved with, and fell apart. If we had won Set 3, I think the match would have been different."
Senior middle Hillary Hurley finished her all-conference career with 14 kills and 14 digs to lead UHH. Senior hitter Rachel Thornquist added 13 kills, freshman hitter Kirsten Sparnaaij added 11 and sophomore setter Nicole Conley 41 assists and 12 digs.
After a slow start in Set 1, UHH pulled away at 19-17 on two kills by Hurley and two blocks by Thornquist to even the match.
The Vulcans looked to be in control in Set 3, leading 21-16 after a kill by Sparnaaij, but couldn’t close. Trailing 22-20, Keala Peterson served for the final five points to give Sonoma State the win.
UHH held off one match point in Set 4 with a block on Peterson, closing to 24-23, but Peterson put down her match-high 21st kill to end it.
