PUHI — The Voyagers won one of the battles, but the Red Raiders ultimately won the war.
Kauai High School’s varsity boys volleyball team defeated Island School, 3-1, Friday night at the Wilcox Gymnasium in Puhi.
Kauai High (5-3 KIF, 2-0 2nd round) defeated Island School — 25-19, 25-17, 16-25 and 25-20.
Though it was a win, Kauai head coach Enoch A’ana said the team didn’t quite play to expectations.
“The same thing I told boys, ‘Is this the way we want to win? No.’ It was a win, yes. But this was not the way we wanted to win,” A’ana said. “Going into the second round, every game is so important. We can’t take anyone for granted. Tonight was a great example of me telling the kids that we can’t take anybody for granted.
“At any given night, anybody can step up to the plate and play their heart out. And kudos to Island School. They’re a great team, and I said it all year. It’s anybody’s game. It just so happened that tonight was a result of us not really coming in and playing our game.”
The Red Raiders clinched both the first two sets with aces and were in position to clinch the road win in straight sets prior to falling in the third set.
In the fourth set and with a 23-20 lead, Red Raiders junior outside hitter Kaimani Tecson scored a kill to end a Voyagers run and to give the team a four-point lead.
A Voyagers attacking error clinched Kauai High the road win to start the season’s second round 2-0.
“The boys also know that every game is very important. Yes, it was a huge win for us because now we’re 2-0 versus 1-1. That’s how we started the season, the first round,” A’ana said. “It’s a great win, but yet it’s not the way I wanted to win. I don’t know how to more clearly put that, but it is a great win.”
Island School (0-8 KIF, 0-2 2nd round) won the third set, 251-16, to extend the match to a fourth set. It was the Voyagers’ first set win in the Kauai Interscholastic Federation regular season.
The Voyagers took a 6-5 on a Red Raiders attacking error. They would keep the lead through to the end. Leading 12-10, Island went on a 13-6 run to clinch the set.
Voyagers sophomore outside hitter Kieran Mitchell scored the set-winning kill.
“We started off the match in a slump. We got ourselves in a hole that we couldn’t dig out of, in the beginning at least,” said Island School head coach Kylie Silva. “Toward the ending of the set, we started picking up the momentum. … Third set, I don’t know what clicked for the boys but something clicked in their heads.
“They’re like, ‘We’re done. We’re done losing. We’re done being a joke.’ They wanted to show Kauai High and the other schools that Island School’s not a joke no more. We’re here to play. We’re here to compete, and that’s what they did in the third set.”
In the fourth set and facing a 23-16 deficit, the Voyagers went on a four-point run to cut the deficit to two points before Kauai ultimately won the set to clinch.
During practice the night before, Silva said the team might have found a mantra to rally around this season.
“One of my big hitters, he’s a little bit sick. He wasn’t feeling 100 percent. So, we needed everybody else to pick it up,” Silva said. “One of my middles (junior Luke Reynolds) actually came up with this analogy of being Voltron, the five robot lions coming together to make one big thing. It’s like, every player on the court got to do what they got to do to form this big, miraculous play. If you know it, you know it. It’s kind of an inside joke, but it pushed the boys. It did, to come in the third set and win.”
Tecson totaled 12 kills, two aces and a block for Kauai High. Red Raiders sophomore outside hitter Rence Soriano had four kills and three aces. Sophomore middle Keane Tibon had four kills and two blocks.
Red Raiders junior setter Joshua Garcia had 15 assists and a kill. Senior setter Seth Bautista had 12 assists and an ace.
Mitchell recorded five kills and an ace for Island School. Reynolds had four kills and a block. Voyagers senior outside hitter Reece Valencia led the team with nine kills, a block and an ace.
Voyagers senior setter Ryan Yavinsky totaled a game-high 21 assists along with three kills, two blocks and an ace.
Kauai also won the junior varsity match, winning all three sets — 25-9, 25-12 and 25-4.
Kauai will play at Kapaa High School, and Island School will play at Waimea High School on Tuesday. The JV matches will begin 5 p.m. and the varsity will follow.
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Nick Celario, sports writer, can be reached at 245-0437 or ncelario@thegardenisland.com
