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August 31, 2007 BYUH Loses Close One
Laie, HI–The 19th-ranked Brigham Young University Hawaii women’s volleyball team put up a battle tonight in their home opener before suffering a narrow defeat at the hands of Northwest Nazarene in the Hawaii Invitational Tournament. The Seasiders rallied twice from a game down in the match, winning the second game and then taking the fourth, but couldn’t quite pull out the win as the visiting Crusaders prevailed 30-24, 28-30, 30-26, 28-30, 15-12. The two teams kept things interesting right up to the end. Each game was close throughout with neither team ever able to establish a clear advantage. The Seasiders appeared poised to pull out the win when they rallied from a 10-7 deficit in the fifth game to catch the Crusaders at 11-11. However, after the teams traded points to knot the score at 12-12 the Seasiders ran out of luck as three straight Crusader kills ended the match. Senior outside hitter Noelle Filimoeatu powered and finessed her way to 22 kills to lead the Seasider attack. BYU–Hawaii, which actually out hit the Crusaders .204 to .169 and led in digs 100 to 84, also got double figures in kills from junior middle blocker Faylynn Merrick and sophomore Agnes Tuilevuka who each hammered down 19 in the match. Merrick hit a solid .410 on the night and also put up a team-high five blocks. Junior setter LeeAnn Mapu hit .421 with nine kills, 65 assists, three service aces, and 23 digs. Tuilevuka also pulled up 23 digs for the Seasiders. Lindsay Forseth led Northwest Nazarene with 23 kills and eight blocks. Cammy Dranginis got 23 digs in the win as the Crusaders improved to 6-1 for the season while the Seasiders fell to 3-3 on the year. BYU–Hawaii faces Cal State-Stanislaus tomorrow at 2:30 pm HST and UC San Diego at 7:30 pm HST in Laie as the tournament continues. |
