HONOLULU – Last season the Chaminade University women's volleyball ended a seven-year drought by defeating Hawai'i Pacific University then capped the season with what is believed to be their first-ever season sweep of their rivals with a win on the final day of the 2015 season.
This time, HPU got even.
In the first meeting of 2016, the Sharks stunned an energetic crowd of 327 at McCabe Gym to defeat the Silverswords 25-22, 25-23, 23-25, 25-21, in the Pacific West Conference opener for both teams.
Daisia LaBrie put down 16 kills and had seven total blocks for the 'Swords who fell to 6-4 and 0-1 in the PacWest.
Kim Spring tallied 11 kills and 10 digs while
Kira Long had a season-high 10 kills.
Cassie Rushlow contributed with nine kills and five blocks.
Natashya Enos dished out 30 assists and had 16 digs while
Waihilo Chartrand had a team-best 18 digs.
Pomai Recca had a match-high 17 kills for HPU (5-5, 1-0).
Chaminade seemed to be constantly playing from behind from the get-go. It had a brief leads early in the first two sets and a 5-0 run late in Set 2 helped give the Silverswords a 20-18 lead but HPU scored five of the set's next eight points to help give it a 2-0 lead.
The Silverswords were staring at a sweep, down 22-19 in the third set but LaBrie accounted for three consecutive points with two kills and a block to tie it at 22, then Spring's kill gave them a 23-22 lead. Chaminade forced a fourth set when LaBrie and Rushlow stuffed back Recca's attack.
Tied at 16 in Set 4, the Sharks used a 5-1 run to establish a 21-17 lead which the 'Swords could not overcome.
Chaminade held the kills advantage, 59-53, but they committed eight reception errors while HPU had only three and were also out-dug, 74-66. The 'Swords who came into the match averaging 1.9 blocks per set which was fourth-best in the conference, were out-blocked 10-9.5 by the Sharks, whose season block average coming into the match was the fourth-lowest in the conference at 1.2 per set.
The Silverswords will look to right the ship on Wednesday when they host BYU-Hawai'i in what will be the final McCabe Gym appearance for the Seasiders, who will drop intercollegiate athletics after this season. Live streaming audio of the match will be on GoSwords.com.
