Saturday, September 8, 2001
[ PREP GIRLS' VOLLEYBALL ]
Laakea Campbell had 20 kills and Ashley Arantani served for eight straight points, including four aces, as Iolani defeated St. Francis 17-15, 15-8 last night at Iolani Gym. Iolani sweeps
St. Francis in ILHBy Chuck Cordill
Special to the Star-BulletinIn the Interscholastic League of Honolulu opener for both teams, the Raiders fought back from deficits of 6-1 in the first game and 4-0 in the second. Iolani avenged an opening-game loss to St. Francis last season.
"This game was kind of redemption for us," said Iolani senior Ashley Elliazar. "We felt like we could have done it last year. We had to prove to ourselves that we could beat them."
St. Francis stormed to an early lead behind all-state middle blocker Elizabeth Narkon, who finished with a team-high 10 kills. After going down 6-1, Iolani head coach Ann Kang called a timeout to try to rally the troops.
"I just told everybody to settle down and work on passing and communicating," Kang said. "This was our first league game and some of the girls were a little anxious out there."
Iolani's Campbell, one of four senior team captains, said the older players provided the needed encouragement.
"We were telling everybody we can do this," Campbell said. "Everyone was saying, 'We're passing machines!' "
Troubadour senior co-captain Narkon wasn't happy with the loss, but said her team wouldn't dwell on it.
"We just have to get the first-game jitters out of the way," Narkon said. "We'll go to sleep tonight and put this one behind us."
Iolani (1-0) visits La Pietra/Waldorf today while St. Francis (0-1) travels to UH Lab.
In other matches yesterday, Lutheran defeated Lanakila Baptist 15-3, 15-6 and Kamehameha beat University 15-10, 15-5.
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