HONOLULU — With a road win against defending state champion Kamehameha three weeks ago, the Iolani girls volleyball team announced itself as a threat to win it all in 2024. On Friday night, the Raiders affirmed it.
Iolani beat Kamehameha for a second time in Kekuhaupio Gym, 25-20, 27-29, 25-21, 25-22, and for a third time overall this season to clinch the Interscholastic League of Honolulu first-round title and a coveted state berth.
[Note: See below for more photos of Iolani-Kamehameha.]
Both the Raiders and Warriors were coming off an appearance in the Durango Fall Classic in Las Vegas last weekend. While both squads felt the challenge of facing elite nationwide programs helped them progress, the Raiders were able to reclaim the edge in the local matchup they found on Sept. 10 and Sept. 17.
Poema Kalama-Kingma put down 17 kills, Taimane Ainu‘u added 16 and Callie Pieper 10 in the win for Iolani (7-0), which missed out on the state tournament last year after winning it all in 2022.
“They’re hungry for something different,” coach Kainoa Obrey told Spectrum News. “They wanted to create a different type of environment in the gym. And with some new kids we got in, some that are able to (play) at a young age, it definitely contributes to the leadership that we have.”
Setter Bailey Nakanelua doled out 44 assists and chipped in 15 digs, five kills and three blocks while libero Maddix Taniguchi popped up 18 balls.
Nakanelua, a junior, showcased an ability to set balls accurately on the move.
“We’re lucky, we’ve had setters pretty much every year that were high level that kind of keeps us in most every match,” said Obrey, who has led Iolani to three of its four state championships in the sport (2016, 2018, 2022). “She knows what to do most often; we’re still working on some things that we can do a little bit better.
“But we’re also lucky that we’ve got some hitters, some kids who can take good swings,” he added. “We don’t have to force the ball to one single person. So it kind of opens up opportunities for our attackers to score some big points.”
Middle Georgie Lee had a solo stuff and got in on six block assists. Pieper had three of her team’s four service aces.
All three meetings between Kamehameha (4-3) and Iolani so far have gone four sets. On Friday, the Warriors made their stand in some tense extra points in Set 2, but they could not maintain it.
Warriors coach Chris Blake was pleased with how his group rallied from six points down in Set 4 to make things interesting in the 20s.
“Iolani goes a lot of great things, and the thing we’re happy about is how (our players) continued to work hard and push,” Blake said. “You know, we have a lot of things we can still improve upon, which is good. We’re still not at our best yet.”
Iolani hosts Punahou on Tuesday and plays at Mid-Pacific on Friday to wrap up first-round play. Kamehameha plays at MPI on Wednesday and hosts Punahou on Friday. The Warriors, Buffanblu and Owls are playing for seeding for the ILH second round, a tournament format with the league’s second state berth at stake.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.