KAPAA — Kapaa’s Kiran Costa had nearly 30 hits for points, and Justin Faidley added key blocks and his share of hits to lead Kapaa to a 3-0 win — 25-17-25-20, and 25-21 — over Waimea on Tuesday during the Kauai Interscholastic Federation boys volleyball games at the Bernice Hundley Gym in Kapaa.
Earlier in the evening, Kapaa junior varsity walked off the floor with a 3-0 win over the JV Menehune — 25-16, 25-16 and 26-24.
“We had to force the ball to Kiran because we were playing out of system,” said Kapaa coach Kapule Kaona. “We had a comfortable lead in the first set, but we were down pretty good in the second set — our passing broke down with overpasses and plays that forced errors. I really liked how our boys came back. Once we tied, it was just one point at a time.”
Waimea fielded its seniors, Matthew “Makaio” Kaohelauli‘i and Justin Lomu, in the first set where the outgoing players had an opportunity to hit against the league-leading Warriors, getting sets from Shayne Simbre-Medeiros who recovered after putting everything on the floor Friday against Kauai High School.
“It’s different for the boys who are playing without any pressure,” said Waimea coach Alton Shimatsu. “The boys were just really playing volleyball tonight. No pressure, just playing good ball.”
Menehune senior Jacob Delos Reyes started Waimea with a bang and Waimea got an ace from Simbre-Medeiros. DJ Pabre whacked from the outside and Waimea looked at a 12-7 advantage following a Kapaa passing error. Pabre continued to hammer, getting the Menehune to an 18-12 edge before Kapaa rebounded with a string of 10 points served up by La‘akea Gonsalves.
The string included a block by Robert “Ali’i” Brown, five Costa hits for points, an ace by Gonsalves, coupled to a pair of Menehune miscues before Simbre-Medeiros ended the run, 24-19.
Waimea capitalized on another Warrior passing error before Brown put away the game with a solid smash up the middle.
Kapaa went on to claim the third set behind back-to-back Faidley blocks in the middle and a Costa hit for an early 3-1 lead, and never looked back. The straight set win opened up the celebration for the two graduating seniors, Justin Paleka and Noah Rall.
“This was a big game for us,” Kapule said. “Waimea came to play, and as I mentioned earlier, our boys did a good job of recovering. The boys did well, out there.”
The win sets the stage for Friday night when Kapaa travels to the Kauai High School gym to meet the Red Raiders with the junior varsity match serving up at 5 p.m. followed by the varsity game starting no earlier than 6:30 p.m. Waimea will make the trek to the Wilcox Gymnasium to face the Voyagers from Island School starting at 5 p.m.
“This is another big game for us,” Kapule said. “We need to win to clinch the KIF title, but you know that Kauai will come to play — it’s anybody’s game at this point.”
Kapaa needs to win at least one game for the KIF title while Kauai is looking at needing three wins to secure the title.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
