First-year head coach Bruce Atkinson knew he had something special brewing with his University of Hawai'i-Hilo volleyball team, but with a roster heavy on freshmen and sophomores, he didn't expect to sip serious success until sometime next season.

Turns out his precocious charges were thirstier than anyone imagined.

After a surprising sweep of reigning PacWest Conference champion Brigham Young-Hawai'i and always tough Hawai'i Pacific last week, the Vulcans sit alone at the top of the conference standings with a 2-0 record (8-4 overall). And while Atkinson is quick to caution against drawing conclusions so early in the season — "There's still a lot of season left," he said — he had to be pleased at the way his team shut out both opponents, 3-0.

"We're a very young team and we're still trying to work on our chemistry," said Atkinson, a chiropractic sports physician and BYUH graduate. "The benefit of watching them practice every day is that I don't think we did anything we haven't done regularly in practice. It's just nice to see their hard work pay off.

"We didn't set any specific goals for this season but we did want to gain some respect in the conference because we hadn't done so great of late," he said. "We didn't want teams to overlook us and we didn't want them using our matches to play their subs."

And no one could accuse Atkinson of setting the bar too low. The Vulcans limped to a 3-12 conference record last year and were picked to finish sixth out of seven in this year's preseason coach's poll.

Still, BYUH's Wilfred Navalta and other conference coaches predicted before the season that Atkinson wouldn't allow the Vulcans to linger at the bottom of the standings for long. Atkinson's last stop was at the University of Texas at Brownsville, where he led a start-up program to a 28-11 overall record, falling just one win short of qualifying for the NAIA national tournament.

Atkinson came away from Brownsville with more than just pleasant memories. Sophomore middle blocker Lauren Bayer, the current PacWest Player of the Week, and sophomore libero Laura Rodriguez followed Atkinson to Hilo and have played major roles in the program's resurgence.

Bayer, the third Vulcan player to receive player-of-the-week honors this season, is a deceptively effective hitter with go-to ability. In six games last week, she hit .641 and recorded 27 kills, including 11 kills on 15 attempts (with no errors) against BYUH.

Rodriguez leads the conference with 221 digs in 44 games and is second in service aces with 25.

"(Rodriguez) just works hard on every point," Atkinson said. "At key moments in the match, you definitely want her around the ball. Good things happen when she's near the ball."

The Vulcans have ample firepower in freshman opposite hitter Hillary Hurley ("I see great things for her," Atkinson said), and the Brazilian duo of Fabiane Seben ("a powerful hitter who brings a lot of excitement and enthusiasm to the team,") and Josimara Pinheiro ("She has a great vertical and she hits really hard").

Pulling it all together is Desiree Agader, the sophomore setter from Kekaha who leads the conference with 12.5 assists per game. Agader nearly took a redshirt year to recuperate from a torn meniscus in her left knee but ultimately elected to play through her injury.

"She's done really well learning the new offensive system and we expect her to continue to create one-on-one situations for our hitters," Atkinson said.

Though deep and talented, the core players for this season's Vulcans were virtual strangers to each other when the season began and Atkinson said the team continues to work through communication issues as the players get acclimated to each other's strengths and weaknesses.

"Most of the girls had never played together before and the one's who were here had to get used to a new offensive and defensive system," Atkinson said. "What's nice is that they didn't know the history of our recent years and they knew very little about the other conference teams. It was an asset for them to be able to go in to matches with an open mind, play hard and grow together."

The Vulcans face a stiff test Friday when they square off with Chaminade, which went 7-1 in the preseason and defeated HPU before falling to BYUH last week. Atkinson saw the Silverswords play at a tournament earlier this season and came away amply impressed.

"They're very talented offensively and defensively," he said. "I think they're the class of the conference."

On Friday, Atkinson's class of the conference will have to withstand his class of the future.

Notes: HPU's Jackie Tedesco led the conference with one service ace per game as the Silverswords dropped tough matches to Chaminade and Hawai'i-Hilo last week ... BYUH senior hitter Noelle Filimoeatu averaged a conference-best 5.33 kills per game and ranked third in digs per games (4.67) ... the top hitter in the PacWest, BYUH's Vanja Radanovic, totaled 23 kills and 10 blocks last week ... in soccer, BYUH freshman Natasha Aiono outscored defending PacWest champ Notre Dame de Namur by herself as the Seasiders won 2-1 in Imont, Calif., last week. The Seasiders, which started the season 0-2-1 have won five straight and are now 3-0 in league play.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.