HONOLULU – When the final point went down in Thursday's Chaminade University women's volleyball match, the crowd at McCabe Gym first exhaled then celebrated two milestones.
In a knock-down, drag-out affair fitting of two squads fighting for postseason berths, the Silverswords, ranked eighth in the latest NCAA West Region rankings, outlasted ninth-ranked Point Loma 22-25, 27-25, 25-22, 25-23 in front of a boisterous 156 fans.
The victory was significant in two fronts:
First, it improved the 'Swords to 21-4, matching the record win total of the 1996 squad while their 15-4 Pacific West Conference record extended their current mark for conference wins. The win also moved them alone into third place.
Second, it also gave seventh-year head coach
Kahala Kabalis Hoke her 100th career victory, becoming just the second volleyball coach in program history to reach the century mark in wins, joining Glennie Adams (179 from 1994-2008) on the exclusive list. Ironically Kabalis Hoke was an All-PacWest performer from 2002 to '04 at Chaminade with Adams as her coach.
Kabalis Hoke is just the sixth head coach in Chaminade athletics history to win 100 games and the third current Silverswords coach to reach the milestone, joining men's basketball coach
Eric Bovaird and softball coach
Kent Yamaguchi. The other century club members are former men's hoops coaches Merv Lopes and Matt Mahar.
"My main aspiration was to get Chaminade on the map," said Kabalis Hoke who took over a program which had hit rock-bottom with a 2-21 record in 2011, the year before her arrival. "I had a great time here (as a player), we were fortunate enough to go to regionals twice (2002, '04) and I want to get us back to that."
Alana Handy (Burlington, Wash./Bethune-Cookman Univ./Burlington-Edison) had 12 kills as did
Rachel Reedy (Temple City, Calif./Arcadia) who returned to the lineup after missing the last five matches due to an injury.
Claire Zanon added 11 kills while Handy and Zanon each completed double-doubles with 11 digs each.
Emma Tecklenburg (Plano, Texas/Plano Senior), the PacWest's kills leader entering the match, was held to nine kills but picked up a career-high 22 digs.
Brooke Bell (Escondido, Calif./North Idaho/Calvin Christian HS), the reigning PacWest Player of the Week, had nine kills while hitting .316.
The Sea Lions were led by Dixie State transfer Kayla Chapman's 14 kills. Point Loma fell to 16-10 overall and 13-6 in the PacWest.
It's the first time since the series began in 2012 that the Silverswords swept the season series from PLNU.
The 'Swords' setting tandem of
Skyler Curry (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Westlake) and
Danielle Wiley (Peoria, Ariz./Centennial) outdueled the Sea Lions' two-time all-conference setter Cara Keturakis by combining for 49 assists (27 for Curry, 22 for Wiley). Keturakis, who posted a triple-double in Wednesday's loss at Hawai'i Pacific University, produced 37 assists but had just one kill and committed three hitting errors in 12 attack tries.
Chaminade's block was also back in full force with nine total blocks.
Terezie Cernosek (Santa Clarita, Calif./Valencia) had five blocks (four assisted) while Reedy had four and Bell three.
The ending of the first two sets were drama-filled. Point Loma survived a Chaminade rally at the end of the first set after leading 23-18. In Set 2, PLNU threatened to go up 2-0 with a 24-23 lead. But Zanon put down two kills while CUH forced the Sea Lions' Rachael Schlect into a pair of hitting errors to win the set and square the match at 1.
In the crucial third set, Chaminade found itself down by as many as three (11-8) but behind Bell's two kills and Zanon's service ace, they took the lead only to see PLNU rally to take it back at 17-16. But Tecklenburg, Handy and Zanon each found the floor to retake the lead to which they did not relinquish.
The fourth set proved to be a battle of wills. There were 13 ties and three lead changes with the largest lead by either squad just two points until late in the set when Chaminade led 23-19. But a pivotal sequence at that juncture nearly led to disaster for the 'Swords when their attack fell to the Point Loma side of the floor which would've made it 24-19. However the serve was not summoned by the up official who called for a replay of the point, negating Chaminade's score.
From there, the Sea Lions ran off four straight points to tie the set at 23. Having already used both timeouts, Chaminade had to dig deep and they did. Reedy slammed down her final kill of the night, setting up aloha ball then Cernosek and Zanon blocked back Chapman to end the match.
Chaminade was outhit .197-.195 but tallied more assists (54-48), digs (67-58) and blocks (9-6).
Following the match, a relieved Kabalis Hoke was quick to give credit to not only the current team members but alumnae who had set the foundation.
"I'm so proud of my team and what they've done," she said. "Not only this year but also the years prior to get us to this championship mindset and to help us build this culture. Thank you all to my former players, all my current players and huge mahalo to my assistant coaches. It wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for you. Chaminade on the rise!"
The Silverswords face another pivotal match when they host league-leading and West Region's fifth-ranked Azusa Pacific (20-6, 16-2 PacWest) where they will look to break the single-season wins record. First serve is set for 3 p.m.
Chaminade head coaches with 100 or more career wins:
Merv Lopes, men's basketball; 237 (1977-89)
Glennie Adams, women's volleyball; 179 (1994-2008)
Kent Yamaguchi, softball; 159 (2006-present)
Eric Bovaird, men's basketball; 105 (2012-present)
Matt Mahar, men's basketball; 101 (2005-11)
Kahala Kabalis Hoke, women's volleyball; 100 (2012-present)
