KAPA‘A — The Waimea Menehune seem to be making a habit of playing five-set matches, only Wednesday night, they were on the winning side as they came from behind to knock off the Kapa‘a Warriors, 25-21, 18-25, 15-25, 25-16, 15-10.
KAPA‘A — The Waimea Menehune seem to be making a habit of playing five-set matches, only Wednesday night, they were on the winning side as they came from behind to knock off the Kapa‘a Warriors, 25-21, 18-25, 15-25, 25-16, 15-10.
Across town, the Kaua‘i Red Raiders needed four sets to knock off the Island School Voyagers, 21-25, 25-16, 25-23, 25-22, at the Kaua‘i High School gym.
After a tough loss to Kaua‘i on Saturday, Waimea looked to be on the verge of a second straight defeat, trailing 2-1 in the match after two convincing games by the Warriors, who received plenty of support from their home crowd.
Yet Waimea jumped on Kapa‘a quickly in the fourth, grabbing a 10-4 lead and forcing Kapa‘a to talk it over. The timeout could not swing the tide and the Menehune would not allow a Warrior run, playing solid and evenly with their opponent to come away with the nine-point win and force the deciding game.
The Menehune kept that momentum going and notched the first four points of the tiebreaker, including two Kaili Lagundino aces.
The teams traded points and Kapa‘a rallied to within three at 10-7, but back-to-back aces by Ryan Kanahele upped the lead back to five.
Kapa‘a big man Sean Shigematsu tried to keep his team alive and had two straight blocks at the net to finish off points and cut the deficit to three at 13-10.
But that was all Kapa‘a was able to muster and Waimea grabbed the victory on match point when a Kapa‘a player crossed the net just off of a Menehune service, creating the final 15-10 margin.
The Menehune spread their stats around quite a bit, with outside hitter Kevin Killerman leading the team with nine kills.
Corey McDown again filled up the stat sheet, finishing the night with a match-high 18 assists, five kills and five blocks.
Kanahele tallied seven blocks, four aces and four kills for Waimea, while Dane Harding had 10 blocks and five kills.
The Warriors were led by Shigematsu’s 12 kills and 11 blocks up front.
Kekoa Colipano had a team-high 13 assists to go with four kills and two aces.
Stephen Greenleaf had nine kills, while Weston Moniz had 11 assists, five kills and four blocks.
Waimea (2-1) will take on Island School (0-3), Saturday, with the junior varsity exhibition game beginning at 5 p.m., followed by the varsity.
Kapa‘a (2-1) will again be in its home gym to take on Kaua‘i (2-1) with the same timetable.
Varsity matches will start no earlier than 6:30 p.m.
In Wednesday night’s JV action, the Kapa‘a Warriors pulled out a 2-1 victory over the Waimea Menehune, 25-16, 21-25, 25-21.
Kaua‘i JV swept its Island School opponent, 25-7, 25-11, 25-15.
