LIHUE — Kauai High School boys volleyball took Friday night’s encounter with Waimea in straight sets — 25-19, 25-16, and 25-20 — to set up for its meeting with Kapaa, Tuesday night during the Kauai Interscholastic Federation boys volleyball games at the Kauai High School gym.
Earlier in the evening, the Kauai Junior Varsity claimed its series in three — 25-18, 25-23, and 25-9.
Over at the Bernice Hundley Gym, the hosting Kapaa Warriors claimed its varsity match in straight sets — 25-11, 25-5, and 25-18 — to round out the Friday night scoring.
“The boys weren’t playing flat,” said Kapaa coach Enoch A‘ana. “They played well, and I’m happy the bench — every single player — got to play, tonight.”
During the first set, Kauai broke away from an 18-18 deadlock when Joshua Garcia served up a string of six points before Waimea’s Keahi Mattos brought the Menehune to 19, and the answering bang from Kauai’s Kaimani Tecson sealed the deal.
Tecson was joined by hits from Rence Soriano and Roed Pagatpatan in the second set to establish the Raiders’ controll, 7-3.
The Menehune answered on hits from Ryan Emayo-Schmitt, donning jersey No. 6 instead of his normal No. 10, and Mattos to stay within four marks, 5-9.
Menehune errors built the bulge to six points, and the Raiders chipped away, a Garcia whack settled the scoreboard at 18-9.
Facing a 13-22 deficit, Waimea answered on hits by Bryson Kapahu, Arnie Fernandez, and a Raider miscue to pull back to within six points, 22-16 before errors closed the book for Waimea.
“We made a lot of errors, tonight,” A‘ana said. “Not so much hitting, but service errors. We had 10 service errors, six in the first set.”
Waimea coach Kell Nonaka said his team also committed a number of errors.
“Again, we had too many,” Nonaka said. “Those were costly.”
A’ana rotated his bench into play during the final set, Hunter Yoshioka settling the board at 19-15 on a solid hit after stumbling to find his footing, earlier. The set was nailed after Justin Bolosan hammered the final point.
“Hunter is playing volleyball for the first time,” A‘ana said. “It’s good to see him step up and fill in like a veteran. Justin was nervous, going in. He thought the game was too close for the bench to get playing time. It’s good to send in the troops when we have the momentum so we can see how they respond to the pressure.”
Kauai next travels to the Bernice Hundley Gym, Tuesday to take on the league-leading Warriors. The junior varsity match gets underway at 5 p.m. followed by the varsity contest.
Waimea will travel to the Wilcox Gymnasium at Island School in a single match starting at 6:30 p.m.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
