HONOLULU — Kamehameha could’ve thought about the daunting task of needing to defeat rival Iolani three straight times in the Raiders’ gym to earn the Interscholastic League of Honolulu girls volleyball championship.
Instead, the Warriors chose to compartmentalize.
They shook off four season losses to the Raiders and, after dropping the first set on Thursday night, rallied to defeat previously unbeaten Iolani in five, 22-25, 25-22, 25-14, 21-25, 15-13 to stay alive for the ILH title.
[Note: See below for more photos of Kamehameha-Iolani volleyball.]
The teams will rematch at Iolani at 3 p.m. Saturday for the double-elimination ILH tournament title. Should Kamehameha prevail again, they will meet one more time Tuesday for the overall ILH championship.
“We were just fighting to have another opportunity to take that step,” Warriors coach Chris Blake told Spectrum News in a post-match phone interview. “We’re excited to get another chance to compete.”
Every previous match went to the Raiders (11-1) in four sets. Kamehameha (8-5) could’ve been forgiven for resting on the state tournament berth it earned Tuesday with a win over Mid-Pacific, but that just wasn’t going to happen for the defending HHSAA Division I champions.
Opposite Kala Chock put down a match-high 24 kills, including the decider on a controversial match point, and Kamana‘o Goldstein added 16. Kalamaku Crabbe contributed 11 and middle Bella Amey 10.
“We just need to work on our serve-receive, just clean up everything and remember how this feels so we can do it again, and again, and again,” said Kamehameha setter Tiahna Aldeguer, who distributed 54 assists and contributed 17 digs, three blocks and two aces.
There were key calls that went against both teams in a tense, back-and-forth Set 5. On the third match point, Kamehameha went to Chock, who faced an Iolani block at the pin. There was a dispute between officials whether the ball landed in or out, and off of whom. The point and the match were ultimately awarded to Kamehameha over the protests of Iolani coach Kainoa Obrey.
“It just shows how close things are,” Blake said, “but we’re happy to come out with a win. Iolani’s a well-coached team, very, very skilled, and they took us to the limit. We’ll get back in the gym tomorrow and we’ll see what happens on Saturday.”
Iolani got 18 kills from Taimane Ainuu and 16 from Poema Kalama-Kingma in the loss.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.