Seattle Pacific University Athletics

HONOLULU – Audra Rose just couldn't miss on Friday afternoon – much to the delight of the Seattle Pacific Falcons.
 
The sophomore middle blocker had a zero-errors offensive performance with 10 kills plus four blocks, junior Amaya Evans slammed 14 kills onto the court, and SPU made it two straight victories in the Hawaii Challenge volleyball tournament by beating Hawaii Hilo, 3-1.
 
Score inside Hawaii Pacific's Shark Tank were 25-21, 25-18, 9-25, 25-20.
 
Later on Friday, the Falcons headed across town to Chaminade's McCabe Gym. They fought off triple-match point against them in the third set to win it and force a fourth, but ultimately fell short of the Silverswords, 3-1. Scores were 25-20, 25-12, 25-27, 25-23.
 
Friday's split halted a three-match winning streak and left Seattle Pacific with a 4-3 record
 
FROM THE COACH
"It was good to see the Hawaii schools and play in this environment," head coach Jason Rhine said. "It was a little hot and it was definitely a battle in both matches."
 
 

He was particularly pleased with the overall performance against Hilo
 
"I thought we did a great job of executing our game plan and finding a lot of transition opportunities," Rhine said. "The team hit at a high percentage, and the setters did a good job of setting the offense."
 
The fourth-set bounce-back in that match after falling 25-9 in the third also stood out him.
 
"After we felt we were outplaying them for a couple of sets, they made a couple of lineup adjustments and the were really fired up," Rhine said. "Thankfully, we were able to let that go (heading into the fourth)."
 
Getting into their groove against Chaminade took some time, but Rhine liked the way the Falcons went about doing it.
 
"We were looking for opportunities against them, and we finally found a couple of cracks," he said. "The third and fourth sets were great battles, high-level volleyball and we were excited to play that."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED VS. HAWAII HILO
--For just the second time in six matches this season, the Falcons were fast out of the blocks as they took the opening set.
--Down 8-6, they took command with a 9-0 scoring burst, the last eight of those with sophomore Megan Omlid on the serve. Junior outside hitter Joslyn Greff had three kills, junior middle Brooke Williams had a kill, a solo block, and a combined block with Evans, and Evans also had a kill. The other two points came off Hilo attack errors.
--The lead grew to as large as eight points at 21-13 before the Vulcans (5-3) twice came as close as three at 23-20 and 24-21. A kill by Rose finished off the set.
--Midway through the second set, SPU used a 7-0 run to turn a 13-9 deficit into a 16-13 lead, then scored five of the final six points to secure a two-set advantage.
--Except for a 1-1 tie, the third set was all Hawaii Hilo. The Vulcans were up 6-3, put the next three points on the board and the Falcons never came closer than five after that.
--SPU was down 8-7 in Set 4 when it strung together six straight points to go in front for good at 13-8. A 16-10 lead gradually melted down to just two at 20-18. Kills by Williams and sophomore hitter Maiya Lester plus a Hilo error stretched it back to a more comfortable margin of five at 23-18 before the teams traded the last four points to close out the contest.
 
FROM THE BOX SCORE VS. HAWAII HILO
--Seattle Pacific had by far its best hitting match of the season, finishing at .347 (52 kills-10 errors-121 attacks). The Falcons hit 351 in the first set, .500 in the second, and 367 in the fourth.
--Rose finished with a season-high .714 hitting percentage, getting her 10 kills on 14 attacks. Her previous high was .600 in the season-opener against Concordia Irvine when had 10 kills and just one error on 15 attacks.
--Of Rose's four blocks, one was a solo.
 

--Evans and Williams were both in the .400s: Evans got her 14 kills on .458 hitting, and Williams hit .455 with seven kills.
--Williams also had six of SPU's 17 total blocks, including two solos.
--Greff finished with 11 kills on .321 hitting.
--Omlid also had an error-free hitting day with six kills on 29 attacks (.207). She also had a team-leading 10 digs.
--Sophomore setter Peyton Ensign led the way with 24 assists.
--Hawaii Hilo also had a respectable hitting performance with 60 kills on a .273 percentage.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED VS. CHAMINADE
--The Silverswords led for most of the opening set after putting together an 8-0 run that turned a 7-5 deficit into a 13-7 lead.
--The second set was all Chaminade as it at a blistering .400 percentage (13 kills-1 error-30 attacks) while limiting the Falcons to .000 hitting (6-6-31).
--In Set 3, the Swords seemed well on their way to closing it out. They built a pair of five-point leads, first at 11-6, then at 20-15.
--But SPU went on a 6-1 run to tie it at 21-21, getting the equalizing point on a combined block by Rose and Ensign.
--Chaminade put the next three on the board to make it 24-21. Then a kill by Rose, a Swords attack error, a combined block by Ensign and Williams, and a kill by Maiya Lester put the Falcons on top, 25-24. A Chaminade kill tied it at 25-25 before a service error gave SPU a set point at 26-25. Williams made good on the opportunity with a solo block to force a fourth set.
--The teams went back and forth before Seattle Pacific edged in front, 19-18. Chaminade ran off four straight to make it 22-19; the Falcons responded with four in a row for a 23-22 lead. The Silverswords called timeout, then put down three straight kills to close out the match.
 
FROM THE BOX SCORE VS. CHAMINADE
--Omlid and Evans had 15 kills apiece. Evans hit at a .448 clip (15-2-29), and Omlid hit .245 and came up with seven digs.
--Senior libero Christina Lopez led the Falcons with 19 digs and Ensign had 13.
 

--Ensign had a career-high 31 assists. That topped her previous best of 26 on Aug. 29 against Westmont.
--Williams led SPU with for blocks. Ensign and Rose had four each.
--Once again, the Falcons were in double-digit blocks, this time with 14 (two solo).
--Seattle Pacific wound up at .186 hitting (41-15-140). That included a .344 mark in Set 4 (13-2-32).
--Chaminade finished with 23 more kills, logging 64 on a .285 hitting percentage.
 
BEYOND BOTH BOX SCORES
--SPU's .347 hitting against Hawaii Hilo was their first time of topping .300 last Nov. 8 at home against Montana State Billings when it finished at .345.
--With just 10 errors vs. Hilo, that bettered the previous season low of 13 last Friday against Cal State San Bernardino.
--SPU's 17 total blocks (three solos) against Hawaii Hilo tied the season high set against Concordia Irvine on Aug. 27.
--Ensign had a total of 55 assists in Friday's two matches.
--For the day, Evans hit a combined .453 (29 kills-5 errors-53 attacks).
--Rose, with her error-free mark of .714 (10-0-14) in the Hilo match, wound up at .419 (16-3-31).
--Williams finished the day with 10 total blocks.
--Omlid's 15 kills against Chaminade gave her 21 for the two matches.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons wrap up preseason tournament play on Saturday when the return to the Shark Tank to take on host Hawaii Pacific. First serve is set for 4:00 p.m. Pacific time.