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| November 9, 2006 Seasiders
Suffer First Loss |
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San Bernardino, CA—The Brigham Young University Hawaii women’s volleyball team lost a heart-breaking match to Cal State-LA in the opening round of the NCAA II Pacific Regional Tournament. The Seasiders won the first two games of the match and appeared headed for a date in the semifinals only to see the Golden Eagles rally for a 23-30, 27-30, 30-23, 30-28, 17-15 win. The loss ended BYU-Hawaii’s dreams of an unbeaten season as the Seasiders finish the year with a 20-1 record.
BYU-Hawaii took an early lead in game one and led 18-13 before Cal State-LA rallied to tie the game at 19-19. But the Seasiders responded with five of their eight blocks in the game to build the lead back and close out the game. Game two followed a similar pattern with BYU-Hawaii slowly building an 18-13 lead before the Golden Eagles scored five straight points to the tie the game at 18-18. The Seasiders broke from a 20-20 tie to open up a 28-23 lead before holding off a late rally by the Golden Eagles.
Game three was all Cal State-LA as the Golden Eagles raced out to a 17-7 lead and cruised to the win. BYU-Hawaii committed seven service errors and six hitting errors in the third game. The Seasiders overcame an early deficit in game four to take a five-point lead at 19-14. But once again, Cal State-LA fought back to tie the score at 19-19. After the teams exchanged several points BYU-Hawaii once again took the lead at 27-25, but again could not hold it as the Golden Eagles tied it at 27-27. Michelle “Tuli” Peters knocked down a kill to give the Seasiders a one-point lead but Cal State-LA scored the last three points to even the match at two games each.
The Golden Eagles took an early two-point lead in game five but the Seasiders caught them at 6-6. The two teams battled toe-to-toe the rest of the game until the Golden Eagles took a 14-13 lead. Serving at match point the Golden Eagles hit the serve long. Noelle Filimoeatu followed with a kill for BYU-Hawaii and the Seasiders had a match point. But Cal State-LA scored three straight points to end the Seasiders’ season.
Peters led BYU-Hawaii with 23 kills. Filimoeatu added 17 kills, ten digs, and tied her career high with four blocks. Christina Bobik knocked down 12 kills for the Seasiders while hitting .429 and put up a career-high five blocks. Faylynn Merrick matched Bobik’s 12 kills, hit .478 and recorded seven blocks. Roseanne Vea tied her career high in blocks with six and made 12 digs. Setter LeeAnn Mapu put up 63 assists, tied her career high with five kills, made 12 digs, had four blocks, and served two aces. Lesina Funaki added 11 digs to the Seasider cause.
Tanya White led Cal State-LA, now 18-8 for the year, with 20 kills. Luana Cavalcanti had 17 kills and Airess Padda and Alexandra Meuter added 11 and 10 respectively. Four Golden Eagles reached double figures in digs.
