PUHI — Friday night belonged to the Island School Voyagers as the blue-and-gold took the Junior Varsity matches, 2-1 over Kapa‘a, and the varsity squad ended with a 3-1 advantage over Kapa‘a during the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation boys volleyball games contested at the Wilcox Gymnasium before a good-sized audience.
The JV Voyagers opened with a 25-14 showing over Kapa‘a before dropping the second set, 16-25, and coming back for the 25-22 closer.
On the varsity court where admission was by online ticket sales, the Voyagers came on strong for wins of 25-20, 21-25, 25-14, and 25-13.
Kapa‘a, in the opening set, broke away from a 3-3 stalemate on a James Kessler whack only to have the Voyagers’ Josh Dobashi keep Island School in the chase, 4-5.
Hits from Kala Rall, Kessler widened the gap until Island School’s Dylan Date blocked a Kapa‘a ball. The block was aided by a Warrior hitting error, and Voyager Michael Fitzgerald’s whack and a Kaelen Suzuki-Kaohi block knotted the contest, 11-11 on a Warrior hitting error.
Voyager Orion Magaoay served up a string of five points, fueled by another Kapa‘a miscue and hits from Dobashi before Rall inserted a pause at the 15-12 Voyager string.
Trailing 12-18, Kapa‘a’s Vince Noguchi served up a string of four unanswered points to knot the contest, 18-18 behind a Warrior whack from Anthony Durocher.
Island School pulled away and Date thunked the final point, 25-20.
Coming back for more exchanges in the second set, Kapa‘a pulled away from a 14-14 deadlock on a Durocher ace. Another Kessler ace and a solid Kyler Napoleon block in the middle pulled the Warriors to a 19-15 edge. The seesaw went back and forth before Moku Tolenoa put away the game, 25-21.
Following a Michael Fitzgerald hit, Kapa‘a tried to come back from a 20-11 deficit with Rall going three straight whacks for points to cut the deficit to seven marks, 21-14. The Voyagers wouldn’t hear of it and pulled away on hits from Suzuki-Kaohi, Dobashi, and a Kapa‘a hitting miscue.
Similarly in the fourth set, Island School held a 17-6 lead following a Michael Fitzgerald whack and a Warrior miscue. The Voyager lead was insurmountable as Island School claimed the match on a Warrior service error.
With the win, Island School boards the bus for the Clem Gomes Gym in Waimea, Tuesday with the JV contest serving up at 5 p.m., and the varsity contest to follow not earlier than 6:30 p.m. In the other match up Kapa‘a will host Kaua‘i High School at the Bernice Hundley Gym with the JV contest serving up at 5 p.m., and the varsity match to follow not earlier than 6:30 p.m.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
