COSTA MESA -- Vanguard women's volleyball was upset Monday night by the visiting Hawaii Pacific University Sharks in a five-set contest. The Sharks captured set one 25-18 but the Lions responded with 25-22 and 25-18 decisions to vault into the lead. However, HPU outlasted the Blue and Gold and took set four 25-23 and set five 16-14 to improve to 2-21 overall and 2-15 in Pacific West Conference action. VU drops to 10-11, 7-10.
What Happened? The warning bells started to sound in the opening frame, as HPU drove out to early 4-1 and 10-6 leads. Both
Adeline Galvanoni and
Morgan Cole notched kills to keep the Lions within a reasonable distance, but the Sharks never gave up a big run in the set. The Blue and Gold chipped away to narrow the gap to 13-10 off a
Bailey Olbur swing, but that was as close as it got. Hawaii Pacific rode away with a 25-18 victory in the first as HPU hit .400, contrasted to Vanguard's .154 clip.
Set 2: The Sharks continued to hunt successfully at the opening of the second period, rattling off five unanswered points. A block by
Alister Borabo and Olbur got VU on the board, but the squad still was down 16-11 in the middle of the set. Yet that is when the big push from the Lions came, as Cole pounced on a ball to open up a 5-0 run that also saw two aces from
Rachel Lim. HPU tip-toed out to a two-point lead shortly after, but
Delaney Hill and Olbur negated that with strikes. Down 20-19, VU let the outside hitters fly, as Borabo, Cole, and Galvanoni combined for five of the final six VU kills to hand the Lions set two 25-22. VU hit .220 and HPU had a .189 tally in the second.
Set 3: The Vanguard hitters had their best output of the night in what would become the middle period, as the Lions smacked at a .355 rate in the third. Galvanoni had two kills early on and
Payton Darm landed a block assist and a kill to push VU to an 8-6 edge. The frame would be tied three more times after that, but a 4-0 stretch by Vanguard featured kills from Olbur and Galvanoni that bumped the Lions ahead to a 16-13 advantage. The Sharks closed to within two points at 19-17, but the Blue and Gold did not let their prey wiggle off the hook, with Olbur netting two strikes over the final seven rallies to help VU win 25-18. The Sharks had a .161 hitting percentage in the third period.
Set 4: VU had early leads of 3-1 and 6-3 before the Sharks flipped the scoreboard to take an 8-6 edge. Borabo slammed down two kills down over the next few rallies, but it would not be enough, as Hawaii Pacific soon led 15-11. Again the Lions produced a hot streak in the middle stages, as Galvanoni powered down three kills in a short span. With another strike by Cole and an HPU error, the 5-0 stretch put Vanguard up 17-15. The score would be knotted five more times, with a kill from Borabo squaring things up at 22-all for the final tie. Unfortunately, the visitors were not discouraged and tallied three of the final four points to take the set 25-23. The Lions hit .256 in the fourth, while Hawaii Pacific found a .184 mark.
Set 5: The Sharks chomped down on the first point but Cole made a quick rebuttal to open the set. But from there, HPU compiled six of the next seven points to gain a 7-2 lead. A block by Cole and Darm brought some life back to the the crowd, but the Sharks parried with three more points to net a 10-4 advantage. The Freed Center got louder as a determined VU counterattack began, with Darm and Hill leading off with a rejection and Galvanoni and Olbur stuffing another attempt to slice the gap to 13-11. A kill by Darm was followed by another block by her and Galvanoni, knotting the score at 14-all and getting all the fans to their feet. But the positive energy was soon sapped by the Sharks, who scored the next two points to win 16-14. Hawaii Pacific hit .103 in the final frame and VU had a .045 mark.
Vanguard was ahead in a few team categories at the end of the night, with the squad owning a .215 hitting percentage compared to HPU's .210. VU had more aces (5-4) and blocks (10-4), but lost out on digs (86-76) and kills (67-64). Borabo led VU with 15 kills and Galvanoni paced the outsides with a .286 hitting percentage with 14 kills and two errors on 42 attempts. Cole had 13 kills and Olbur had 10. Cole also netted another double-double with a match-high 20 digs and paired that with four block assists.
Blair Dodge had 16 digs and
Madeline DeLucia corralled her double-double with 11 digs and a team-high 29 assists. Lim had 23 helpers and Darm led all players with seven block assists.
What's Next? The Lions will reset and play Jessup on Friday at home at 6:00 p.m.
