LIHU‘E — The Kapa‘a High School Junior Varsity girls volleyball improved to 8-0 following a sweep of the Island School team Friday night during the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation girls volleyball games that were contested at both the Wilcox Gymnasium on the Island School campus, and the Kaua‘i High School gym.
The JV Lady Warriors controlled their matchup, 25-10, 25-18 and 25-15 at the Wilcox Gymnasium while over at the Kaua‘i High School gym, the JV Menehune were 2-1 winners over the JV Red Raiders, 25-23, 20-25, and 25-22 before a stand of fans that had a reason to cheer.
The Island School varsity squad faced a two-set deficit after dropping its opening sets to Kapa‘a 20-25 and 19-25. But the best-of-five was not done as the Voyagers reset in the break and came back to take the remaining three sets, 25-18, 26-24, and 15-7 at the Wilcox Gymnasium.
Over at the Kaua‘i High School gym, the Lady Red Raiders celebrated its third victory of the season in four sets against the Menehune ladies who entered the arena with just seven players suited up for active play, the same situation it faced, Tuesday night when the Voyagers handed Waimea its first season loss following an undefeated first round.
Facing the momentum of Kaua‘i High School’s second season win, its first on the road, and limited to just one substitute on the bench, Waimea dropped its first two sets, 22-25, and 23-25 in hard-fought battles, giving the fans lots of cheer for the price of admission.
In the opening set, Waimea was down 0-7 before lighting up the scoreboards on a Cherish Tavita hit, and clawed its way out of the hole until a string of points served up by Tavita who packaged an ace in the string, put Waimea up 13-11. The set stuttered at 16-16, 17-17 before Tavita and Ambrieal Kanahele hits saw the Menehune on a 21-18 bulge. But a service error combined with solid hits from Kaua‘i’s Shania Kelley settled the seesaw.
In the third set, Kanahele served up an ace en route to an 8-1 bulge followed by Tavita taking the service block with back-to-back aces toward a 14-6 lead as the Red Raiders struggled with court miscues, the final three points for Waimea coming on service error, passing and hitting misjudgements.
Exhaustion set in for the fourth set, and Kaua‘i capitalized on that, pulling away from a 4-4 deadlock on a long 9-point service string by Jaclyn Oshiro for the 18-5 go-ahead. A service string by Esjhalee Ching Ching Man peppered with hits from Mikayla Alonzo, Keira Caoagas brought the math to 22-6.
But the Menehune would not relent, and a service string of six ananswered points lby Keani Emayo kept Waimea in the game, 13-24 before a Menehune service error sealed the night.
KIF girls volleyball continues, Tuesday night when Kapa‘a travels to the Clem Gomes Gym, and Island School visits the Red Raiders at the Kaua‘i High School gym. The first serve for the Junior Varsity game goes at 5:30 p.m. followed by the varsity contest starting 25 minutes following the end of the JV games at both locations.
Results
Island School
Kapa‘a JV 25, Island JV 10
Kapa‘a JV 25, Island JV 18
Kapa‘a JV 25, Island JV 15
Kapa‘a varsity 25, Island varsity 20
Kapa‘a varsity 25, Island varsity 19
Island varsity 25, Kapa‘a varsity 18
Island varsity 26, Kapa‘a varsity 24
Island varsity 15, Kapa‘a varsity 7
Kaua‘i HS gym
Waimea JV 25, Kaua‘i JV 23
Kaua‘i JV 25, Waimea JV 20
Waimea JV 25, Kaua‘i JV 22
Kaua‘i varsity 25, Waimea varsity 22
Kaua‘i varsity 25, Waimea varsity 23
Waimea varsity 25, Kaua‘i varsity 13
Kaua‘i varsity 25, Waimea varsity 15
