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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Punahou goalkeeper Spencer Rigg held Kamehameha to four goals during yesterday's playoff for the ILH championship.

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Punahou prevails
in water polo playoff

Carr and Rigg lead as the
Buffanblu defeat Kamehameha
6-4 for the ILH title

Seniors Mele Carr and Natale Rigg lost Friday for the first time in their four-year careers on the Punahou girls water polo team.

Last night, they made sure they wouldn't lose again.

Carr scored two goals, including the game-winner midway through the fourth quarter, and Rigg added an insurance goal as Punahou defeated Kamehameha 6-4 in a playoff for the Interscholastic League of Honolulu championship at Iolani.

Punahou has won the ILH title all nine years it has been contested.

With the win, the Buffanblu (8-1) secured the league's lone berth in this week's state tournament at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex at the University of Hawaii.

"It was something that we all wanted so badly, but after losing to them on Friday, there was a little bit of doubt because we've never lost before -- ever," Rigg said. "Kamehameha is such a good team this year. I have complete respect and admiration for them."

After the first half, in which Kamehameha's defense yielded just one Buffanblu goal, Punahou was finally able to use its quickness to create one-on-one situations and move the ball around the pool in the second half.

"We knew we had to get the ball to our center people because that's one of our strengths," Punahou coach Ken Smith said. "On Friday, we didn't do a good job with that and that's one of the things we talked about. We started to do that a lot better in the second half. That helped our offense."

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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Punahou's Kendra Dilcher and Kamehameha's Tiare Nobrega fought for the ball during the ILH championship match last night.

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Kelly Samples scored on a pass from Rigg to tie the game at 2 with 5:43 left in the third quarter. Punahou took the lead one minute later when Carr got a pass from Samples, who had the ball in the center but was swarmed by two defenders.

After Kamehameha coach Ben Nary called a timeout, the Warriors responded with two goals in a 30-second span from Kealaonapua O'Sullivan and Elizabeth-Rose Hanohano-Wong to lead 4-3.

"We were getting lazy on defense and playing into Punahou's game," Nary said. "They were getting us into a halfcourt setup and getting the easy shots. What we needed to do was to go back and attack them, play tough defense and cut off the passing lanes.

"We did that and that worked. And we kind of dropped off after that."

Samples' goal one minute into the fourth quarter tied the game at 4. With 4 minutes left, Carr caught a cross-pool pass from Angie Giancaterino and fired a shot from the left side that went past the Kamehameha goalie.

"I knew that time was running down and we've been practicing that shot over and over," Carr said. "I made eye contact with her and I stepped out and gave everything I had."

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JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Kamehameha goalkeeper Mailei Stachel took an elbow from Punahou's Kelly Samples while trying to defend one of the Buffanblu's six goals in last night's ILH water polo title match.

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Two minutes later, Rigg's arching attempt from the left side found the back of the net to put the Buffanblu up 6-4.

Kamehameha had a good opportunity to score on a 6-on-5 situation with less than 2 minutes left, but Lauren-Ann Garrigan's attempt sailed just over the crossbar. The Warriors (6-3) had another opportunity, but turned the ball over with 44 seconds left.

"We had a lot of power plays, I think we had six or seven, and we didn't score on any of them," Nary said.

The Warriors, who defeated Punahou 9-7 last Friday to win the ILH tournament and force the playoff with the regular-season champion Buffanblu, played strong defense that yielded just one goal in the first half to Kellen Fletcher. Whenever a Punahou player had the ball near the goal to set up a play, at least two Warriors would converge on her, forcing turnovers.

"We knew the defense was fine, but the offense had to come out and do the same thing as it did on Friday," Nary said.

In last Friday's match, Kamehameha led 7-0 at halftime. Punahou then scored seven goals in the second half.

"We said let's have the fourth quarter carry over into this game and have it as a continuation of Friday's game," Smith said.

"It was funny because we were actually going to have practice on Saturday but we decided there wasn't anything from that game we could've practiced," Rigg said. "It was all in our minds. We all knew what we needed to do.

"(Today) we talked about will and it came down to will. We all wanted it so badly and we refused to give up."