Hawaii Beat
Star-Bulletin staff
|
ILH relieved La Pietra to stay in Division II
Following the lead of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, the executive board of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association voted unanimously yesterday to permit La Pietra's basketball team to compete at the Division II level in the coming season.
The exemption, following thorough discussion by the four leagues present, HHSAA president Meredith Maeda and executive director Keith Amemiya, was a huge relief for ILH president Richard Schaeffer and executive director Don Botelho.
La Pietra and the league had been in a quandary because current ILH policy requires its Division II champion to move up to Division I. La Pietra won the title last season, but has since lost several key players to graduation. The Lady Panthers were dealt a serious blow when standout forward Courtney Gaddis left due to financial constraints.
With a high school enrollment of 150 students, La Pietra wanted nothing to do with Division I basketball. Last year's state champion, Punahou, hails from ILH D-I, as do perennial state contenders Kamehameha and Iolani.
The ILH will allow La Pietra to remain in Division II, but the HHSAA will continue to use the Division II team totals and ratios set by July's deadline. This means the number of D-II teams submitted to the HHSAA by the ILH, 10, will remain the same in the ratio equation for state-tournament berths.
The number of D-I teams submitted by the ILH, however, will now drop from six to five. Schaeffer and Botelho said that despite the drop, the ILH is still in line to send two teams to the state girls basketball tournament.
As for the current ILH policy, there is likely to be a change.
"Our principals want us to revisit our whole policy," Botelho said.
Blood to miss matches for No. 15 Hawaii
The Hawaii women's volleyball team opened the week with one less player and up one spot in the national poll.
Junior middle Caroline Blood is in California following a death in her family and will miss this week's conference matches with Idaho on Friday and San Jose State on Sunday. Without Blood, the Rainbow Wahine have three available middles: juniors Kari Gregory and Juliana Sanders, and freshman Amber Kaufman.
Kaufman has been starting at right-side hitter since the season-ending injury to Jessica Keefe two weeks ago. UH coach Dave Shoji said that if Kaufman were needed to play middle, senior reserve setter Cayley Thurlby would be used as an outside hitter.
Also on the depth chart on the outside are three defensive specialists: junior Raeceen Woolford and sophomores Rayna Kitaguchi and Makana Recca. Shoji said on Sunday that Recca would suit up this week for the first time this season.
In the latest CSTV/AVCA Coaches Top 25, Hawaii (15-5) moved up one place to No. 15. The top seven teams remained unchanged, led by the two lone undefeated teams: No. 1 Nebraska (18-0) and No. 2 Penn State (21-0).
Also yesterday, Keefe said her knee surgery has been scheduled for Nov. 6. She tore both the ACL and MCL as well as her medial and lateral meniscus after putting down the match-ending kill at Louisiana Tech Oct. 11.
» Brigham Young-Hawaii (17-0, 13-0) kept its No. 9 ranking in the CSTV-AVCA poll after clinching the PacWest championship last week.
Weber ousted in regional semifinals
University of Hawaii's Andreas Weber lost to Alex Slovic 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2 in the ITA Northwest Region tennis championships yesterday in Stanford, Calif.
Weber finished 4-1 in the tournament.
UH golfers tied for 13th in San Diego
The Hawaii golf team is in a tie for 13th after the first day of the Barona Collegiate Cup in San Diego, Calif.
Individually, UH's Cody Wolfenbarger is tied for 13th at 3-under 144.