In a feat of remarkable consistency, the Chaminade women’s volleyball team completed a 20-game sweep of the PacWest Conference to earn a fourth straight NCAA Division II Tournament bid.
The No. 7 Silverswords defeated Hawaii Hilo, 25-20, 25-17, 21-25, 25-16 at Vulcan Gymnasium on Saturday night to become the eighth team to complete an undefeated Pacwest volleyball season. It was new ground for Chaminade (27-4 overall), which was the first school to do it in seven years.
Hawaii schools have authored seven of the eight all-time PacWest women’s volleyball undefeated seasons. BYU-Hawaii had four and Hawaii Pacific and Hawaii Hilo have had one.
Over the 20 games, the Silverswords were taken to five sets twice — against Hawaii Hilo and against Fresno Pacific, both at home. They swept teams six times.
Coach Kahala Kabalis Hoke's Silverswords have a 73-7 PacWest record over the last four seasons, a period that has now produced four of CUH’s seven all-time NCAA postseason appearances.
The family of Chaminade junior and Hilo native Mahala Ka‘apuni treated the rest of the team to a dinner celebration after the team secured the outright league championship, Kabalis Hoke told Spectrum News in a phone interview Sunday.
"It's still sinking in. 'Wow, just wow,'" she said. "That's where my head's at right now. I'm so incredibly proud of the team and I did not fathom this coming into the season. I expected some shortfalls, but I'm just unbelivably proud that we persevered. We had some (down) moments throughout (PacWest) season, but fortunately they just turned into sets rather than the whole match."
She pointed out that tired legs on the road or the occasional ill-timed injury are unfortunate realities of a long conference season. But through determination and some luck, the Silverswords were mostly unencumbered by those factors this year.
"In addition, we had nine seniors with just incredible leadership," Kabalis Hoke said. "Just falling short last year was the fire everybody needed to come in really focused and goal-oriented."
The NCAA Division II selection show is 2:30 p.m. Monday at NCAA.com. Stanislaus State of the CCAA and Central Washington of the GNAC are the other two automatic qualifiers in the West Region; five at-large teams will be revealed.
West Region action begins Dec. 5. Chaminade will see if it can move up from its No. 3 West ranking — top-ranked Pomona was upset in the CCAA tournament — but Kabalis Hoke was doubtful that her team could host; Chaminade did not submit a bid, she said.
Chaminade has won 17 straight overall.
The big outcome down the stretch was a four-set victory at previously unbeaten and 13th-ranked Point Loma Nazarene on Nov. 15. PLNU went 19-1 in the PacWest.
"Because Point Loma was doing well, that kept us on our toes," Kabalis Hoke said.
Chaminade followed it up with four-setters against Hawaii Pacific on senior night and at UHH to close. Silverswords hitter Anna Stucchi put down 19 kills on .548 hitting on Saturday, raising her season percentage to .441 — representing a Chaminade record if the season ended today.
The Silverswords have ensured that it does not. Kabalis Hoke said that her team, which has been scouted heavily with available game tape, would focus on mixing in more attack options from now until the NCAAs.
The Hilo Vulcans finished 16-14, in a four-way tie for fourth place in the PWC.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.