WAIMEA — The Menehune boys won at home to get their first win of the season’s second round.
Waimea High School’s varsity boys volleyball team defeated Island School on Tuesday at the Clem Gomes Gym at Waimea High School.
“First of all, I’d like to say that Island School put up a good competition. It’s a really good challenge for everybody in the league,” said Waimea head coach Alton Shimatsu. “It’s not like you’re going to come in here and guaranteed win this. They put up a challenge.
“They came close to beating us in every set, so it’s not like it was a blowout in three sets. I respect that. But my boys, they started off slow and they slowly fought through point-for-point. They did what they had to do to come out on top at the end, but it was a tight game.”
Waimea (5-4 KIF, 1-2 2nd round) won in straight sets against Island — 25-19, 25-22 and 25-20.
“It was a sloppy win. We have a lot to work on,” said Menehune senior outside hitter Regis Lomongo. “Things we got to work on, we got to find it on our own to pump themselves up. That’s pretty much it. … It’s already late in the season, and our coach can only do so much. It’s mostly up to us.”
Shimatsu said while it’s a relief to put an end to the team’s losing streak, it won’t matter much in the long run if the team doesn’t turn thing around soon.
“It’s good for us, but we need work done because the way we did wasn’t up to standard,” Shimatsu said. “If we continue to play like this, we’ll be right back on a losing streak. We just got to come to practice and work harder.”
Late in the third set, Island School (0-9 KIF, 0-3 2nd round) faced a near double-digit deficit but went on a scoring run to cut Waimea’s lead to 22-20.
“It was just the time difference. The boys just weren’t prepared, and that was my fault for not preparing them before hand,” said Island School head coach Kylie Silva.
Silva added: “It’s something the boys are used to — finishing. But like I said, it’s a work in progress. Hopefully, they’ll get it. They’ll be good enough, hopefully by the end of the season, to win a set or finish a set. Finish a game, and finish strong.”
Island School forfeited the junior varsity contest because they didn’t have enough players to field a team. Because there wasn’t a JV match, the varsity match started about an hour earlier.
“It can throw off (a team) a lot, especially with a young team like how we have,” Silva said. “When you build a routine, halfway through the season you build a routine already. For the JV, do this and that. When you take something away, it throws off everything and your mind is out of whack. It’s good for the boys to learn how to adjust to everything.”
Waimea will host Kauai (5-4 KIF, 2-1 2nd round), and Island School will host league-frontrunner Kapaa (8-1 KIF, 3-0 2nd round) on Friday. The JV matches will begin 5 p.m. and the varsity will follow.
