The Waiakea volleyball fans cheered so loud it felt like it was Senior Night or the BIIF championship instead of a regular-season game against Kamehameha.
The Waiakea volleyball fans cheered so loud it felt like it was Senior Night or the BIIF championship instead of a regular-season game against Kamehameha.
The vocal support helped, but inspiration only goes so far, and Emmett Enriques was pretty much unstoppable for Kamehameha, which won 25-12, 25-10, 23-25, 25-5 and looked dominant 75 percent of the time.
Enriques pounded a game-high 22 kills, and fellow senior Kekaulike Alameda dived all over the floor for 11 digs for Kamehameha (10-0), which is inching closer to the BIIF Division I regular-season title and a berth to the HHSAA state tournament.
Isaiah Laeha added six kills while Kainalu Whitney and Pukana Vincent put down four kills each. Avery Enriques racked up eight digs, and Isaiah Laeha had five digs. They all provided the type of two-way balance the home team lacked.
Ty Nishimura slammed 10 kills for Waiakea (8-2), and was only one in double-digits. He took a ton of swings because other offensive options were limited due to wobbly passing, especially during back-and-forth rallies, often won by the other Warriors.
However, the third set was a good one for Waiakea, which shares the same Warrior nickname with Kamehameha. The home team’s fans offered encouraging roars to give Nishimura and Co. an emotional push.
Kamehameha was making unforced errors all over the place to help Waiakea take a 23-16 lead; a whopping 17 free points were courtesy of the generous visitors in that span.
After Enriques dented the floor to get Kamehameha within 23-20, Waiakea called timeout and the home team’s fans were careful to chant, “Let’s go Waiakea,” mindful to not yell, “Let’s go Warriors,” and motivate the visitors.
Another Kamehameha error, the 18th giveaway point, made it 24-20. But set point was slippery and elusive, at least for a little while.
Kamehameha sophomore Chase Carter smoked a kill, and a pair of Waiakea hitting errors chopped the lead to 24-23. The tension was boiling, and the home team called another timeout.
Kaniela Alviar dumped cold water on Kamehameha’s rally when the Waiakea junior blasted a ball down to close the set.
“Waiakea’s crowd was unbelievable,” Kamehameha coach Guy Enriques said. “They were breathing life into their guys. We won Games 1 and 2 pretty handily, but it suddenly changed. That was a great exhibition of a school supporting their kids.”