HONOLULU-While the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds (5-4 overall, 4-1 PacWest) entered Saturday night flying high, the defending PacWest Champion Chaminade Silverswords (9-6 overall, 4-0 PacWest) derailed the upstarts in straight sets at McCabe Gymnasium.

Both teams brought in winning streaks that spanned their previous five matches.

The home team looked comfortable from the start as a pair of five point runs for Chaminade put FPU in a 15-5 deficit in the first set.

Chaminade displayed the balanced attack that they are known for and made just three errors as Fresno Pacific dropped the first set 25-17.

Fresno Pacific played their best volleyball of the night in the second, holding Chaminade under .200 on attack while delivering 12 kills of their own and pushing the Silverswords in the second set before falling 25-23.

Chaminade closed it out in the third set, firing on all cylinders and hitting over .500, to close out the match 25-12.

"All of the credit goes to Chaminade for today's match," Fresno Pacific head coach Mike MacNeill said. "They completely and unapologetically imposed their will against us. This is not characteristic of who we are. We are team that will battle with anyone and give our best when our best is needed, and that wasn't who we were today."

While FPU had their cleanest match of the season, committing single-digit errors, Saturday's contest was hampered by them as the Sunbirds hit just .019 and committed 26 errors in three sets.

"We have to be better and its starts with me," MacNeill added. "I will continue to prepare us better to contend in these matches."

The Sunbirds were led by Makena Ogas' 9 kills. McKenna Hughes had 10 digs and Catie Speas had 14 assists.

"The effort was there," MacNeill finished his thoughts about the match. "However, as a team, we were too busy focusing on the wrong things."

Fresno Pacific will return to the mainland still boasting one of the best starts to PacWest play in FPU history.

"We will turn our attention to getting a good week of practice, " MacNeill said of how FPU moves on. "I will make sure we are ready for the Academy of Art. We will be better prepared next time."

The Sunbirds open up conference play a week from Saturday, on September 24^th, at 2 p.m. in the Special Events Center when they welcome in the Urban Knights.