WAIMEA — Kauai High School boys volleyball celebrated a sweep in Kauai Interscholastic Federation action Tuesday night.
Following a competitive 25-23 opening round against the Waimea High School team, Kauai volleyball players breezed through a 25-13 second set before holding off the Menehune challenge on a 25-19 win to complete the sweep.
“Following the first five-set meeting, we needed to make changes,” said Kauai coach Enoch A‘ana. “We worked on that during practices, focusing on passing better, and telling the boys to keep the ball in play during service.”
Kauai battled back from an early 3-0 run in the third set, set up by a block and a whack from Arnie Fernandez.
A hammer from Kauai’s Joshua Garcia knotted the match, 4-4. Waimea’s Ryan Emayo-Schmitt pounded back, and a hit from Miles Davis knotted the contest 5-5.
The seesaw continued until Kauai pulled ahead from a 14-14 deadlock, capitalizing off a Menehune hitting error, and moving to a 19-15 lead on a pair of Menehune net violations and a strong Rence Soriano block.
Davis set up the finale on a solid hit that was answered by Waimea’s Bryson Kapahu blocking a Raider bang before a block from Raiden Pagatpatan sealed the deal.
“We cleaned up quite a bit,” A‘ana said. “We finished with just four service errors spread out over three sets, compared with the 14 we committed in the first five-set meeting. We keep stressing, they need to get the ball over in play. We also got better blocking — blocking and defense. We have to stay strong.”
Kauai next hosts Kapaa on Tuesday at the Kauai High School gym when the first serve in the JV match goes off starting at 5 p.m. Waimea will host Island School in a single match starting at 6:30 p.m.
“It’s back to the gym,” A‘ana said. “Hopefully, we can build on what we learned and have a better game.”
Earlier in the night, the Red Raider junior varsity collected a 3-0 win — 25-15, 25-11, 25-9 — over the efforts of the Waimea JV team.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.