SAN DIEGO—A slow start turned into a quick night as the Point Loma Sea Lions (12-8 overall, 8-4 PacWest) fell to the Hawai'i Hilo Vulcans (13-3 overall, 10-2 PacWest) in straight sets Wednesday night inside Golden Gym.

Point Loma fell behind in each of the first two sets and could not recover.

The Sea Lions found themselves down 9-3 early in the first set forcing a timeout. Hilo's four-pronged attack would further the difference at 17-10, forcing PLNU's second timeout.

"We had a strange sense of timidity in that first set." Point Loma Head Coach Jonathan Scott said. "It got contagious really quickly. The crazy thing was we still played good ball in that first set but there were just a few weird ones that we let go and then you have to hand it to Hawai'i Hilo."

Point Loma trimmed a few off the lead thanks to a pair of kills from Claire Smith sandwiched around a kill from Bailey Williams, and forced Hilo's timeout.
Smith delivered another kill, off the block, out of the timeout and Madie Fox followed up with a kill to pull within two at 20-18.

But Hilo scored five of the next seven points to take the set 25-20.

The Vulcans hit .429 in the set.

Hilo raced out in front of the second set and never looked back en route to a 25-12 victory for the Vulcans.

Point Loma was the aggressor in the third set, jumping out to a 5-1 lead, before Hilo roared back, scoring 14 of the next 19 points to take a 15-10 lead.

Hilo closed out the set, and the match 25-17.

Smith led the way for the Sea Lions with 10 kills and a .444 attack percentage.

"Claire has been practicing really hard and has been doing a couple of different roles for us all year, I'm really proud of her." Scott added.

Anna Massari added 8 kills.

Point Loma will have a quick turnaround hosting Chaminade at Golden Gym on Thursday night at 7:00pm.