KAPA‘A — After the opening two sets were taken by the Waimea High School Menehune, the Kapa‘a High School Warriors appeared to be down and out. Kapa‘a was in danger of starting the second half of the season 1-2 and leaving
KAPA‘A — After the opening two sets were taken by the Waimea High School Menehune, the Kapa‘a High School Warriors appeared to be down and out. Kapa‘a was in danger of starting the second half of the season 1-2 and leaving the door open for any of the other schools to push the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation volleyball title to a playoff.
The Warriors played sloppy early on, but slowly turned its game around to win the next three sets and take the match 23-25, 22-25, 25-14, 25-16 and 15-11. Kapa‘a did not make things easy, but got its momentum back by the end of the fourth set.
“I think in those first two sets, we just made a lot of unforced errors,” said Warrior Head Coach Kapule Kaona. “And obviously when you start making unforced errors or you don’t play well, your confidence kind of drops and so that is what really took a hit.”
Despite the unforced errors, Kapa‘a never rolled over in the first two sets. It was able to battle point for point throughout the sets but could not quite put a string of points together.
Waimea did look tough early on and got fantastic play from Koa Luce-Yamamoto, Nohili Kahepu‘u and C.J. Kahepu‘u. All of which were able to come away with blocks on the Warrior hitters.
“What we needed to do was make some in-game adjustments,” Kaona said. “We were struggling in the middle the first two sets. We weren’t really running our middles too much, which is why the outside hitters for Waimea were just camping out against our hitters and getting blocks.”
The adjustments were definitely noticeable for the Warriors as it came out firing in set three and never looked back.
Jeremiah Obrero, who has been Kapa‘a’s go-to player for most of the season again proved why he is one of the more dominant players in the KIF. Joshua Cram also had a solid game setting the ball for the Warriors.
“After that second set I told them our backs are against the wall,” Kaona said. “How do we respond? What kind of team are we going to be? When things are down what do we do how do we respond? It is up to you to make that decision.”
The Warriors definitely have shown an ability to come back and show
resilience throughout the season.
With the win, Kapa‘a improves to 7-2 on the season, while the Menehune fall to 4-5.
Kapa‘a will host Island School on Friday, while the Menehune will be on the road again in Lihu‘e to take on the Kaua‘i High School Red Raiders in an important matchup.
