HHSAA D2 GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
Radford gets up off the mat against Sacred Hearts
RADFORD shook off its nerves and a young Sacred Hearts team as the Rams defeated the Lancers 23-25, 25-18, 25-21 in a quarterfinal match of the HHSAA Girls Division II volleyball tournament at Radford's James Alegre Gymnasium.
The Rams (14-1) face Maryknoll (11-9) in the semifinals tonight at 8.
Senior Alzie Auelua, led the Rams with 16 kills and had just two hitting errors. Keila Ah Mow had 10 kills for Sacred Hearts (11-9).
She's a strong hitter, good arm swing," Sacred Hearts coach Jonathan Tom said of Auelua. "Not afraid to swing at the ball."
After taking Game 1, the Lancers suffered a mental collapse the rest of the way with bad passing, hitting and a nightmare at the service line. Meanwhile, Radford settled down to close out the Lancers.
"We adjusted a lot," Auelua said. "We moved our defense and we got hyper and excited. We just played our game, had tough serves and picked our shots carefully."
In Game 2, the Lancers fell behind 6-0 and never recovered. Macy-Alexandra Mitravich's kill helped Sacred Hearts close to 15-12, but Lancer errors and bad passing continued, forcing coach Tom to replace starting setter Courtney Inouye with 4-foot-11 Sharlynne Solomon.
Melanie Faaliga picked up the slack for Radford with three kills, a block and two service aces.
Radford led 22-13 before the Lancers rallied behind two kills and a service ace by Tiffany Phillips to close to 23-17. Radford then turned to Auelua to close the match as she scored the next two points on a kill and service ace.
Radford took the lead at 8-7 in Game 3 after two ties and held on the rest of the way behind Auelua. After a sporadic play where Radford somehow managed to get the ball over, Sacred Hearts sent the ball back on an overpass and Auelua slammed it down to make it 14-10.
She had a solo block to make it 15-10 and the Rams led 17-10 after a Sacred Hearts error and a kill from Marlena Malepeai. But Sacred Hearts closed to 20-19 after a series of Radford errors.
Maryknoll def. Seabury Hall 2-0
Maryknoll held off a late rally to upset third-seeded Seabury Hall 25-21, 25-23 in the quarterfinals.
Maryknoll went on a 6-0 run late in Game 2 to lead 22-15 before Seabury Hall closed to 23-22 on a double block by Kaimi Rocha and Bailey Roberts. Maryknoll then got a kill from Bryanne Ramiscal whose bump over the net landed just in.
Blissa Tanaka served the ball out on Maryknoll's first match point but Maryknoll (11-9) won the game on the next play when a lift was called on Seabury Hall (8-5).
Kapaa def. Hana 2-0
Poerava Gantt had seven kills and Amniesty Ragsac added 10 digs as the Warriors eliminated the Vikings from the tournament in a consolation match 25-13, 25-17.
Kapaa (9-1) advances to tomorrow's seventh-place match while Hana finished the year at 5-9.
St. Francis def. Kaiser 2-0
Senior Kawena Cubi-Otineru had 12 kills as the top-seeded Troubadours defeated the Cougars 25-13, 25-20.
St. Francis (16-3) advances to face Kaimuki (14-3) in today's semifinals at 6:30 p.m. Chanelle Esteban led Kaiser (14-3) with six kills and will play Honokaa in the consolation round.