Yellowjackets Drop Five-Set Heartbreaker to Hawaii Pacific; Led 2-0

Box Score

HILO, Hawaii – The Montana State Billings volleyball team dropped another five-set heartbreaker Friday evening to Hawaii Pacific, 3-2 (25-21, 25-20, 14-25, 14-25, 15-17) as it fell to 0-2 on the year while the Sea Warriors improved to 2-0.  The Yellowjackets will be back in action Saturday morning as they take on Ashland University (Ohio) at 10:30 a.m., Hawaii time and then Saturday evening versus host Hawaii Hilo at 7:30 p.m., to close out the first weekend of play.

“Tonight we played a lot better,” head coach Steve Smith said.  “We were able to do some things early on and led 2-0.  When you have a chance to close out a team you need to take advantage and we weren’t able to close them out.  We had some adversity later in the match and we were down in game five, but fought our way back to tie it at 15.  We have lost two matches by a total of seven points and we are right there.”

MSUB battled back from an 18-14 deficit in the first set as Smith called a timeout after a 5-1 run by the Sea Wolves.   The timely stoppage seemed to spark MSUB as it rattled off seven of the final 11 points for a 25-21 win.

Set two saw HPU jump out to a 10-7 lead, but the Jackets tied it at 12 as Hannah Johnson rattled off five consecutive serves and later in the set Jody Lutz served out with a 21-19 lead with an ace and two kills from Johnson for the 2-0 advantage.

The Sea Warriors came roaring back in sets three and four as they hit an impressive .484 in set three and .314 in set four to even the match.  Conversely, the Jackets tallied 12 errors in the two sets and 17 kills combined as HPU won both 25-14.

The decisive set five saw HPU jump out to a 5-1 lead early, but the Yellowjackets continued to fight and closed to within 8-6 on an attack error by Natasha Bell. 

After a timeout by the Sea Warriors, HPU regained the momentum and built the lead to 12-9. Again, the Yellowjackets had the answer and evened the set at 15 courtesy of back-to-back attack errors and a Geneva Blunt block for a 15-15 score. 

With the serve, the Jackets looked poised to take the lead, but kills from Bell and Pacific West Conference Preseason Player of the Year, Kelly Balanay, sealed the match for HPU.

The Jackets were led by 14 kills each from Jen Boe and Johnson.  Setter Brooke Tolman tallied 31 assists as she had 37 last night.  As a team, MSUB hit .111 with 26 errors and cut the down the number of reception errors from 14 last night to five tonight. 

HPU had four players with double-digit kills led by 15 from Sanoe Recca.  Pihana Kea recorded a match-high 49 assists as the team hit .173 with 32 errors.