WAIMEA — The Kapaa Warriors got their biggest win of the season Saturday night, edging the Menehune of Waimea High School in five sets, 16-25, 25-22, 18-25, 25-21, 15-11 at Clem Gomes Gym in Waimea. Losing their season opener in
WAIMEA — The Kapaa Warriors got their biggest win of the season Saturday night, edging the Menehune of Waimea High School in five sets, 16-25, 25-22, 18-25, 25-21, 15-11 at Clem Gomes Gym in Waimea.
Losing their season opener in straight sets to the Menehune in Kapaa the week before, the Warriors made it clear they had revenge on their minds.
With Warrior players and coaches sporting green T-shirts with the motto, “We Believe …To Know, We Do …To Become” on their backs, the Warriors played inspired ball after dropping the first set.
Kapaa coaches Evan Costa and Heidi Aceret said they got their girls to trust in one another and bounce back.
“I thought they believed tonight,” said Costa. “Once we pulled off that one set, they started to believe that it was possible.”
And helping them believe was Aceret, the vocal leader in numerous timeouts on Saturday.
“I told them we need to play to win, not play not to lose, there is a difference,” said Aceret. “And that was the difference. They weren’t playing not to lose, they were playing to win.”
The second set was tied up at 22-22 when the Warriors finally distanced themselves behind an ace from Kaiemi Moniz, a net violation from Waimea and a final block from Tori Daligcon-Pomaikai.
Seeming refocused and reenergized, Waimea grabbed an early 8-7 lead in the third set with attacks from Kawena Warren and Mariyah Oliver.
From that point on, it was all Menehune behind four kills each from Warren, Oliver and Caitlyn Owen.
With their backs against the wall in the fourth set and on the brink of losing once again to Waimea, the Warriors fought back.
Opening with a kill from Madisson Hinkel to start set four, Kapaa grabbed the lead and held it, winning 25-21 to force a fifth set.
Looking as if they were out of energy, the Menehune fell behind 10-2 and couldn’t regroup fast enough to challenge the motivated Warriors. Hinkel led Kapaa in the final set with four kills and a pair of blocks and capped off the almost two and a half hour contest with a kill.
Menehune coach Chad Delanoza was quick to praise Kapaa.
“We just got beat by a better team tonight,” he said. “Kapaa is always hungry, they’re always looking for something to build on and tonight was their reward for working hard these past couple weeks.”
Delanoza said Saturday’s loss was both a humbling and learning experience for his girls.
While Kapaa’s Aceret was happy with the win, she said there are bigger goals.
“The goal is to always become champions,” said Aceret. “But we don’t want to jump that yet. We need to continue to get better.”
Kapaa improves to 2-2 on the season, while the Menehune of Waimea High sit at 3-1.
In JV action, Kapaa took two out of three sets against Waimea 19-25, 25-23, 25-17.
Over at Kauai High School, the Red Raiders’ varsity and junior varsity teams swept the Island School Voyagers.
The varsity Red Raiders won 25-13, 25-13, 25-13, while the JV won 25-10, 25-11, 25-10.
Kauai High is 3-1 on the season, while the Voyagers are now 0-4.
KIF girl’s volleyball action continues Tuesday with the Kapaa Warriors hosting the Kauai Red Raiders at Kapaa and the Waimea Menehune traveling to Island School to take on the Voyagers. Both matches begin with JV at 5, with the varsity to follow no earlier than 6:30 p.m.
