#5 BYU Hawaii def. #22 Fresno Pacific 3-1 (25-15, 25-23, 14-25, 25-19)

Fresno Pacific went toe-to-toe with three-time defending PacWest champion BYU Hawaii on Monday night, giving the Seasiders one of their toughest matches of the season, which included a dominant 25-14 set three victory by FPU.

The Sunbirds (9-6, 4-4 PacWest) out-hit the Seasiders .279 to .259, including holding them to a negative attack percentage in set three, an extremely rare feat against one of the nation's top offenses.

In the end the Sunbirds showed their talent to be on par with that of the Seasiders, but the difference was the consistency of BYUH, which limited its errors throughout the match and ultimately pulled out three set wins to improve to 12-1 (7-1 PacWest) on the season.

"I thought we played well," said head coach Kelly Winter. "It obviously wasn't the result we wanted but our offense looked good, our block did a nice job and we were executing the gameplan really well. I think what it came down to was our passing. If we could could have done a better job of digging up just a couple of their serves in crucial situations, it becomes a totally different ballgame. Both sides of the net had a lot of great offense and it really came down to the serve and pass game."

The Sunbirds came out flat in the first set, struggling to pass well and getting out of system which allowed the Seasiders to take advantage with a .519 attack percentage. By the second set though the Sunbirds had gotten into more of a rhythm but a couple balls didn't fall the Sunbirds way in a 25-23 loss and FPU found themselves down 2-0.

The Sunbirds continued their momentum in set three however and overwhelmed the Seasiders by hitting .323 and holding BYUH to a season-low negative .062. Rupia Inck was in the zone throughout the match, and shined in the third set while pumping up the home crowd. Rebecca Waller came up huge as well for the Sunbirds in the set, both as a blocker and as an attacker.

"She's gotten better and better as the season has gone on," said Winter. "The last two matches have been great for her and we loved the aggressiveness she showed tonight."

In set four Inck delivered back-to-back kills to put FPU ahead 10-8 but the Seasiders battled back to take the lead. The teams traded points for a while and FPU trailed just 17-16 after a Jessie Alcorn kill, but the Seasiders took control from that point, aided by a couple Sunbird errors, to finish out the match on an 8-3 run.

Reigning PacWest player of the year Shih Ting Chen led the Seasiders with 18 kills and a .333 attack percentage. Setter Ying Chun Chen did a great job of setting up her hitters to find holes in the defense, finishing with 43 assists.

Inck led all players with 21 kills, putting on an impressive offensive display for the Sunbirds. Morghan Williams added 11 while hitting .600, Alcorn finished with 10 and Rebecca Waller had nine. Bissie DenHartog had 49 assists and Hannah Butler led the defense with 22 digs. DenHartog, Waller and Williams each had three blocks.

The Sunbirds are back at home this Saturday for their annual alumni match at 3 pm. FPU doesn't play another regular season match until the following Saturday when they host Notre Dame de Namur.