LIHU‘E — The Island School Voyager wahine swept its series over the Kapa‘a Warriors Friday, and the Waimea varsity girls took three straight games during its visit to Kaua‘i High School during Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation girls volleyball.
The Voyagers won 26-24, 25-15, 25-16, and the Menehune won 25-19, 25-20, 25-19, to set up a battle of the unbeatens Tuesday when Island School travels to Waimea’s Clem Gomes Gym. The junior-varsity contest starts at 5 p.m., and the varsity tilt follows 25 minutes after the JV contest.
In Lihu‘e, following several deadlocks early in the opening set, Waimea pulled ahead when Safina Sandblom served up a string of eight unanswered points, including an ace, to put the Menehune up 14-9 over the Raiders.
In the string, Kaimalie Alquiza had back-to-back whacks, and got help from Kaulana Huihui Caberto while the Red Raiders tried to find their passing game.
Nahe Bukoski got in a few solid hits for Kaua‘i High, including a few from the back row, but the Red Raider effort came up short against a block from Huihui Caberto and Alquiza sealing the deal, 25-19.
The Raiders stayed close in the second set, but could not get past three- and four-point deficits despite Elise Yukimura serving up an ace at the 20-24 mark to keep the door open. Waimea’s Halia Moriguchi stepped up to shut the door for the second time, 25-20.
Rejuvenated by the tight second set, Kaua‘i opened the third set by taking the lead on a string of four unanswered points behind a nice block, and a hit from Mikayla Alonzo for the 6-4 go-ahead. Waimea answered with a string of six points served up by Huihui Caberto, who also marked an ace in the chain, and a hit from Alquiza while the miscue bug took its toll against Kaua‘i for the 13-11 Menehune bulge.
Waimea put together two additional four-point clusters behind hitting from Sandblom, Moriguchi, Huihui Caberto and the strong sets from Braeanna Moises before a Kaua‘i error sealed the contest, 25-19.
In Friday’s junior-varsity action, the Voyagers completed the night of winning, 21-25, 26-24 and 25-17, while the JV Raiders took down Waimea, 16-25, 25-23, 25-22.
Playing its second outing on the road, the JV Lady Warriors opened strong, taking its first match 25-21, and continued the momentum before dropping 24-26 and 25-17 to the JV Voyagers.
Similarly, the varsity Kapa‘a girls came out strong in the first set, but lost the wind, 24-26 to the Varsity Voyagers, who closed the night with wins of 25-15 and 25-16.
With the Voyager win, Island School improves to 2-0 on the fledgling KIF season and prepares to meet the Varsity Waimea girls who also sport a 2-0 record.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” said Waimea coach Brandi Hori Moises. “We need to adjust better and go back to game basics. The girls adjusted to Kaua‘i pretty good, but the season is still young and all the teams are still looking for good competitive games. We only had two weeks to prepare for the season, and everyone is still just happy they’re out on the court.”
To meet the anticipated demand for seats in the Tuesday battle of the unbeatens, fans are reminded that no walk-up ticket sales are available. The contest will be live-streamed on Menehune Live on YouTube.
On the other side of the island, Kapa‘a High hosts Kaua‘i High at the Bernice Hundley Gym, where the JV games serve up at 5 p.m. with the varsity match following.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
