Seasiders Sweep Knights Again

Laie, HI–The Brigham Young University Hawaii women’s volleyball team swept Academy of Art tonight, for the second night in a row, 25-20, 25-19, 31-29 in a Pacific West Conference match.  Just as they did last night the Seasiders out-hit and out-blocked the taller Urban Knights as they improved to 13-10 for the season and 9-4 in the conference.

The Seasiders started quickly, hitting .390 in the first game to establish the tone for the evening.  Despite hitting a lower percentage in each of the two succeeding games, the Seasiders out-hit the Urban Knights in each game to finish with a .248 to .158 hitting advantage for the match.

After bursting out to an 11-3 lead and cruising to the win in the second game, the Seasiders found themselves in a really tough battle in game three.  BYU–Hawaii scored the first six points of the third game and appeared headed for an easy win, but Academy of Art fought back to tie the game at 20-20.  The Seasiders scored four of the next six points to lead 24-22 but a pair of hitting errors let the Urban Knights tie the game again.  The Knights fought off another match point at 25-24 and then took a 26-25 lead of their own only to see freshman Kylee Nawahine knock down a kill to tie the set at 26-26.  The Seasiders wasted two more match points before finally closing out the match on setter Lacey Laycock’s only kill of the night and a hitting error by the Urban Knights.

Sophomore Losaline Faka’osi smacked 14 kills and notched 16 digs to lead the Seasiders.  Nawahine and Ane Vea each put down ten kills for BYU–Hawaii.  Nobuko Kotoyori came up with 11 digs while the nation’s second-leading blocker, Tanza Buroker, rejected five Academy of Art attacks.  Vea finished with four blocks for the Seasiders.

Dan Yang had 18 kills and 12 digs to lead Academy of Art, now 16-9 for the season and 4-5 in the conference.  Nicolette Hagan also had 11 digs to go with an equal number of kills for the Urban Knights in the loss.

BYU–Hawaii will travel to Honolulu to take on the University of Hawaii on Friday at 7:00 pm HST.  Hawaii is ranked third nationally in Division I play.

Box Score