[ HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL ]
Punahou girls remain
perfect by beating Iolani
Punahou girls volleyball coach Scott Rigg stopped short of saying his team brought its "A" game last night against Iolani, but the Buffanblu still had enough firepower to remain undefeated with a 27-26, 25-15, 21-25, 25-20 victory over the Red Raiders in Interscholastic League of Honolulu action.
"Iolani played a real good match -- they obviously prepared very well and they improved a lot since the first round," said Rigg, whose team improved to 15-0 overall and 2-0 in the ILH's second round. "It wasn't our best effort -- we need to go back to work and make sure we're ready for Kamehameha next Wednesday."
While the Buffanblu found it hard to deliver the knockout punch last night, they showed plenty of grit in closing out the match, particularly in the fourth game.
Aneli Otineru led Punahou with a match-high 18 kills (and 28 digs) and was surrounded by a strong supporting cast in Larissa Nordyke (14 kills), Elizabeth Kaaihue (13), Kaui Robello (11) and Spenser Rigg (10). As always, the Buffanblu were largely aided by the presence of setter Pohai Nu'uhiwa, who added 25 digs.
Nu'uhiwa is also still searching for that perfect game.
"We can be a bit sharper in every area, and in the fourth game we showed that," she said. "We stayed patient tonight, but we have to be on it the whole game. We just have to go back to the gym and be ready for Saturday's game (with Word of Life) and Wednesday's game."
Although Punahou prevented the match from going to a fifth game, all encounters were highly contested. With the score tied at 15 in Game 4, the Buffanblu began to pull away on two kills apiece by Robello and Kaaihue that made it 19-15. Even then, Iolani would not go away quietly as Kapua Kamana'o tallied three of her seven kills in a 3-1 Red Raider run that eventually helped the hosts pull within 20-18. But Punahou responded with a point from Kaaihue and back-to-back kills from Rigg to all but seal the Red Raiders' fate.
"I'm proud of the way we played," said Rona Kekauoha, who is Iolani's co-coach along with Rewa Winchester. "We came out flat against them in the first match, so I wanted us to play to our ability tonight, and we did that."
Iolani (12-4, 1-2 second round) was led by Lacey Lavarias and Rebecca Lisle, who totaled 10 and nine kills.
In the boys' match, Punahou made a huge comeback to drop Iolani from the ranks of the unbeaten with a 19-25, 13-25, 25-20, 25-21, 15-11 victory.
"We finally learned how to play at the end of a match," Punahou coach Peter Balding said. "We've struggled with the last five or six points of a match. We worked real hard on trying to simulate that in practice, and the kids, to their credit, kind of rallied after Game 2 and took it upon themselves to not go down without a fight.
"At the start of Game 3, we started to serve more aggressively and we started getting the ball to the guys we wanted to get the ball to," he continued. "It allowed our big guys to start blocking some balls, and it took them out of their rhythm a little bit. That's what we wanted to do, and I'm just glad we had five games to be able to come back. If it was two out of three ... ."
Punahou was led by Kealii Frank's 10 kills, while Spencer McLachlin added nine and Michael China seven.
The Buffanblu trailed only twice in the decisive Game 5, the last time at 5-4, before tallying three straight, including a service ace from McLachlin to take a 7-5 advantage. Punahou never trailed again.
Iolani (12-0, 1-1) was led by Kyle Pape's 30 kills, while Sean Carney added 28, Kawika Shoji 25 and Todd Blankenship 20.
"We didn't play well today from the beginning," Iolani coach Luis Ramirez said. "I think Punahou played really well, and I think it's a wake-up call for us."
