Seasiders' Chens too Much for Antelopes

Phoenix, AZ—The Brigham Young University Hawaii women’s volleyball team defeated Grand Canyon 3-1 tonight on the road for the second night in a row in a Pacific West Conference match.  The Seasiders downed the Antelopes by a score of 25-13, 18-25, 25-17, 25-17 to improve to 8-3 overall and 5-1 in the PacWest.

Freshman setter Michelle Chen got the Seasiders off to a fast start tonight by serving four aces as BYU-Hawaii opened the first set with a 9-0 lead behind Chen’s serving and went on to an easy win in the game.  After the Antelopes bounced back to win game two, Chen served another ace in leading the Seasiders to a 5-0 advantage to open the third set.  Grand Canyon could not recover from the deficit and BYU-Hawaii went on to take a 2-1 lead in games.  BYU-Hawaii once again started fast in the fourth set, opening up a 4-0 lead and increasing it to 10-4.  The Antelopes once again could not overtake the Seasiders and BYU-Hawaii closed out the match by winning the final four points of the fourth game.

Freshman Stella Chen hammered 21 kills, came up with 16 digs, made four assists, and served two aces to lead the Seasider attack.  Junior Lauren Hagemeyer put down 15 kills and hit .448 while freshman middle blocker Ariel Hsu knocked down a season-high 11 kills to go with her two blocks.  Michelle Chen finished with six aces, 47 assists, 13 digs, and three blocks for the Seasiders and fellow freshman Fayrina Merrick pulled up 26 digs in her first start at libero.  Losaline Pula, moved back from libero to outside hitter for the match, finished with 18 digs, seven kills, and three blocks.

Grand Canyon, now 8-6 for the season and 2-4 in the PacWest was led by Janae Giles with nine kills and Mackenzie Phelps with 21 digs. 

BYU-Hawaii will face Cal Baptist on Tuesday night in Riverside, California at 7:00 pm PDT in a Pacific West Conference match.

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