DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Kahuku's Chazel Fiso, Jamie Thompson and Mona Ale celebrated after the Red Raiders won the OIA title last night.
Kahuku, Pearl City Twice was nice for the Kahuku girls and Pearl City boys volleyball teams.
win OIA crowns
in volleyball
The Red Raider girls cruise;
the Charger boys overcome
a lapse in Game 1By Tim Crouse
tcrouse@starbulletin.comBoth teams successfully defended their Oahu Interscholastic Association championships at the Stan Sheriff Center last night, and will be the top seeds for the OIA in the state tournament.
Kahuku served notice to the rest of the state that this may be the year an OIA girls team finally carries home a state championship, beating Moanalua 15-8, 15-13.
The Pearl City boys volleyball team continued its league dominance last night, winning its 10th OIA championship -- but it wasn't easy.
Pearl City rebounded from a slow start to beat Mililani 8-15, 15-9, 15-13 for its fourth title in the past five seasons.
No other boys team in the OIA has won more than five championships.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
The Kahuku girls volleyball team let out a cheer after winning the OIA championship last night with a sweep of Moanalua.
It's been 21 years since a girls OIA team won a state championship (Kailua in 1981), but the Red Raiders may change that this season.
They used a strong passing game and the powerful hitting of Tuli Peters to make up for a midseason loss to the Menehunes. After the Red Raiders lost to Moanalua and Farrington in the regular season, the coaches made defense the priority at practices, and Kahuku hasn't lost since.
"Our offense was already there," Kahuku coach Irwin Ah-Hoy said. "But we had to work on our pass and our defense.
"The key tonight was the first pass."
The passing made it easy for the hitters, especially Peters, who finished with a match-high 11 kills.
"It was especially important because we had five seniors," Red Raiders coach Mona Ah-Hoy said. "They were there last year and they knew how to play out here. The experience helped them."
With a loud, partisan Red Raiders crowd urging the team on, Kahuku jumped out to an 11-1 lead in Game 1 behind the hitting of Peters (five kills) and Moanalua's mistakes. The Menehunes charged right back with Resina Nataniela behind the service line. Nataniela had four aces in a seven-point run. But Kahuku finished off the game with a run of its own, getting kills from Chazel Fiso, Camilla Ah-Hoy and Peters.
"I was (team) manager last year and it was good to (play this year), especially on this court," freshman Camilla Ah-Hoy said.
Patti Hardimon had two kills and two hitting errors in the first game for Moanalua. She never got on track in the match and finished with six kills.
"Inside we all wanted it, but we let down," Moanalua sophomore Danie Hout said. "We let the crowd and the other team get into our head too easily."
Kepua Lee and Hardimon buried back-to-back kills in Game 2 to give the Menehunes an 8-5 lead. But Kahuku came charging back to take a 12-9 lead, thanks to several bad passes by Moanalua and a couple of Menehune net violations.
Moanalua tied it at 12 on a kill by Hout and another kill into an empty left corner by Ashley Gandauli. But a hitting error sent the ball back to Kahuku, and Peters dumped a kill into the middle of the court to put the Red Raiders up 13-12.
Peters hit a ball long to give Moanalua a point, and a 13-13 tie, but followed with a kill that hit inbounds for Kahuku match point.
Peters finished the match with a kill that hit the back line. She finished with a match-high 11 kills.
"It feels better than last year," senior Lesina Funaki said.
Peters agreed.
"The second time is better," she said. "It was just as hard or even harder.
"If it wasn't for all those hard practices and getting killer serves from our coaches (to practice on), it wouldn't have worked out."
Pearl City 2, Mililani 1: Mililani took a 6-3 lead in the rally-scoring third game after four consecutive Pearl City hitting errors. But the Chargers rallied to tie it at 7, and the two teams battled back and forth the rest of the way. Michael Hardy was in on two straight blocks to give Pearl City a 9-8 lead.
Moments later, Justin Himori blasted a kill off the Chargers' block to give the Trojans a 12-10 lead. After that, Pearl City went on its final run.
Elsworth Kaanaana dumped a kill into the center of the court and Michael Adams and Jonathan Charette teamed for a block to put the Chargers up 13-12. Himori tied it at 13 with a kill for the Trojans, before Pearl City finished the match with a Kaanaana kill and a solo block by Charette.
"I had a little feeling that it wasn't going our way, but our blocks came through at the end," Pearl City coach Reid Shigemasa said. "We had some key blocks there."
Pearl City's chances of claiming the OIA title didn't look good early.
In the first game, the Chargers hitters couldn't find the court. Pearl City made eight hitting errors and six service errors. The Trojans put up a big block, finishing the game with six blocks.
"We knew they're a really good team and we knew they were capable of playing big in big moments," Adams, a senior, said. "They shocked us. They were hitting balls, blocking balls, they caught us off guard.
"Coach (Shigemasa) talked to us, had us calm down a little and got us back to playing the way we were used to playing."
Said Shigemasa: "Mililani played well in the first game, they didn't make any mistakes. We had a lot of hitting errors.
"But Kapena (Wong) came in and saved us."
Pearl City settled down to win Game 2. The Chargers had only two hitting errors, and Charette, Wong and Kaanaana came up big. A Kaanaana ace put Pearl City up 14-7, and he ended the game moments later with a kill.
Wong came off the bench to lead Pearl City with 12 kills and a pair of blocks. Hardy finished with five blocks.
Himori and Puna Neumann had seven kills for Mililani.
In the girls third-place game, Kalani defeated Pearl City 15-2, 10-12, 15-13. The Campbell boys beat Leilehua for third place, 14-11, 15-8.
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