By KEVIN JAKAHI
By KEVIN JAKAHI
Tribune-Herald sports writer
St. Joseph setter Georgia Pirie felt the significance of Wednesday night’s win over Kohala as she watched her teammates celebrate, especially the joy from her fellow seniors.
It was the first time in four years the Cardinals, who have four seniors on their eight-player roster, advanced past the first round in the Big Island Interscholastic Federation volleyball playoffs.
Pirie and outside hitter Haley Thorsen have been on the team for four years. It’s the biggest win for them as well as their teammates, including seniors Nicole Smallwood and Lacey Toledo-Muragin.
St. Joe defeated the Cowgirls 25-16, 25-17, 25-17 at the Cardinals Gym to advance to the BIIF semifinals, where No. 1 seed Ka‘u awaits today at Kealakehe High.
The winner earns a berth to the Division II state tournament, which will be held next Tuesday through Friday on Oahu. The loser will play in the third-place game for the league’s last state spot.
The Cards last qualified for states in 2006 as the BIIF Division II champion. A return trip would be nice, but Pirie had something else on her mind as she thought about extending her season.
She’s well aware of the small-school situation at St. Joe, which won’t field boys and girls soccer, and girls basketball for the second straight season for winter sports.
Next year, there might not be a volleyball team, unless a recruiting campaign helps fill the roster. The other players are all sophomores: Olivia Brinkman, Fiona Follett, Nozomi Nakazawa and Alison Fuata, a talented middle blocker.
Unlike a charter school, where players can play at a neighbor public school if a sport is not offered, private school players don’t have that luxury.
“We haven’t made it past the first round in a while, and it’s my last year and we had to do it,” Pirie said. “Haley and I have been on the team since we were freshmen. There might not be a team next year. This win is for all of us, not just the seniors.”
Thorsen drilled 16 kills, Fuata nine and Brinkman added five kills to power the Cardinals, who lost to the Cowgirls in the first round last season in Kapaau.
“Everybody worked hard,” St. Joe coach Noel Navarro said. “Our setter spread her sets around and that opened holes for Haley and everyone else. Without the pass and set, there’s no hitting. Everything starts with the pass.
“Everybody did their role. We don’t have one main player on the team. We played as a team.”
Against Kohala, St. Joe’s passing, for the most part, was on point, but Pirie pointed to her team’s fire as the best weapon — something that will be helpful against the Trojans, who beat the Cards in four sets during the regular season.
“We kept up the intensity and we didn’t let them get too far ahead,” she said. “If they had a few points, we’d nip it in the bud. We really played as a team and talked.
“It’ll be a tough game against Ka‘u. We have to spread the sets and if we play defense and dig the ball we should be OK.”
Like Pirie, Thorsen thought about the future of her younger teammates. If anything, that situation of a cloudy future inspires her to keep swinging hard.
“Before the game, we had a talk that we never made it past the first round,” Thorsen said. “We practiced so hard and we had belief in ourselves. We played really good and our attitude was really high.
“The younger girls might not get a chance next year. It’ll be difficult for them not to play volleyball. But we’re going to push as hard as we can right now.”