KEAAU – Call Christian Liberty the little orange engine that could.
KEAAU – Call Christian Liberty the little orange engine that could.
Play volleyball in the Canefire fieldhouse gym, and there’s a good chance the school with 44 high school students could take you down or at the very least put up a good fight.
Ka’u outlasted Christian Liberty 27-25, 17-25, 20-25, 25-19, 15-13 in a BIIF Division II Blue match on Friday night.
The Trojans (7-1) had better balance and firepower. They also made a few more clutch plays in the last set. And they stopped beating themselves with service errors, a night-long problem.
Pete Dacalio knocked down 16 kills, Trevor Taylor 14, Buddy Flores 12 and Joven Padrigo added seven for the visitors, whose only loss is to Hawaii Prep.
Zack Suffern slammed 15 kills, Terrcin Allen eight, and Matthew Feldmeyer had four kills for the Canefire (5-2), who also went to five sets against Pahoa and Honokaa at home. They beat the BIIF runner-up Daggers in the season-opener.
Ka’u committed 15 service errors while the Canefire had six. But both teams had none in Game 5, which saw Christian Liberty fall behind 11-8 after three straight hitting errors.
Allen dropped an ace and Suffern recorded a solo block for a 12-11 lead. Then it turned into a one-on-one battle between Suffern and Flores, who sandwiched a pair of hard shots around a Canefire hitting error.
That made it 14-12. But Suffern countered with a kills before Taylor hit a roll shot for match point.
The Canefire have 18 boys in high school and 12 are on the volleyball team. Even better, there’s only one senior in Feldmeyer, a middle blocker.
Suffern, a middle, setters Jesse Nagatori and Kawika Aguiar are all juniors while Allen, an outside hitter, is only a sophomore.
“I feel every match we’ve played at home it could have gone either way,” Christian Liberty coach Gary Oertel said. “The first set was the one that hurt the most because we had a big lead (21-17). But Ka’u made more big plays than us.
“I’m happy with everything we did, and we had good spirit tonight. Our bench was making a lot of noise. It was exciting.”
Suffern is not only a main source of offense, but he also puts up a mobile block and passes well for a big guy.
“Zack’s been playing really well, and I like our setter (Nagatori) and, in fact, the core of our team,” Oertel said. “We’re only have one senior, and we’re young, but we don’t want to wait until next year to start winning.”
Like the Canefire, the Trojans run a two-setter offense with senior Jamal Buyuan and freshman Kobe Moses. Flores and Dacalio are two-way middle threats as hitters and blockers, and Taylor and Padrigo are athletic hitters.
All the key starters are seniors, including Buyuan, Flores, Dacalio, Taylor and Padrigo for Ka’u, which last qualified for the HHSAA Division II tournament in 2015 and has an enrollment of about 220.
“We could tell that for Christian Liberty that this was their match,” Ka’u coach Josh Ortega said. “It seemed like the whole town came to support them, and they were fired up. We had our struggles, but the kids stayed focused. That was the main key.”