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Pearl City and Nanakuli
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The Nanakuli Golden Hawks are a victory away from the state tournament.
Aaron Amaral delivered 16 kills and four service aces as Nanakuli upset Moanalua 25-27, 25-13, 25-21 yesterday afternoon in opening-round play of the Oahu Interscholastic Association boys volleyball playoffs.
Nanakuli (7-4), the No. 6 seed from the West, will meet Radford on Wednesday at Kahuku's gym for the right to a state tournament berth. Moanalua, the third seed from the East, finished the season 8-3.
In another match at Moanalua, Pearl City advanced to the quarterfinal round by rallying past Castle 17-25, 25-21, 25-21. Pearl City (8-3), the No. 4 seed from the West, will face East No. 1 Kalaheo at McKinley.
Castle, seeded fifth in the East, closed the season 6-5.
Nineteen errors by Nanakuli practically gave Game 1 to Moanalua. After that, Nanakuli kept mistakes down and dominated the net. Middle blocker Clarence Sesepasara added 10 kills, many off quick sets from Amaral.
"Aaron played smart. We knew they'd try to shut him down," said Nanakuli coach Rosalind Palakiko, now in her 17th season. "We needed to settle down and get that first pass up. My two setters (Aaron and Anson Amaral) were hot, and I had to cool them down."
Alika Gaison, a junior, had five kills, two roofs and an ace to pace the Menehunes. With seven aces and just 21 team errors, Moanalua stayed close. Nanakuli finished with 38 errors in all.
In the earlier match, West No. 4 seed Pearl City overcame a major case of the nerves to beat East fifth seed Castle. The Chargers committed 21 unforced errors in the first game, but came alive in time to show the potential to be a darkhorse in the hunt for a state tourney berth.
"This whole season, we start off slow," middle blocker Joshua Fial said. "Coach said we could beat them, but we had to get focused."
Fial came up big in Game 3, knocking down six of his eight kills. "I played bad today. I was off," the 6-foot senior said. "Jeremy (Pahukoa-Malia) was pretty unstoppable."
Pahukoa-Malia, another middle blocker, came through with six kills and only one error for Pearl City. The even-keeled senior helped settle the Chargers, who committed just five errors in the pivotal second game.
"Jeremy played with more consistency," Pearl City coach Dayne Teves said. "Josh was second-guessing himself. He wasn't jumping for the quick set. It took him two sets to really get going."
Once that happened, Castle was in trouble. The Knights came into the game without middle blocker Kealii Bertelmann, one of the team's best hitters. Making matters worse, Keala Aulelaua suffered an ankle injury late in Game 1 and didn't return. "Pearl City is very scrappy, but I think we could've beaten them if we had all our guys," Castle coach Pat Gomes-Woolsey said.
