Against the ropes for most of the night, Waiakea fought back with mental toughness and scored a comeback for the ages that will go down in history as the greatest ever for a BIIF volleyball championship.
Stuck in an 0-2 hole and down late in other sets, the Warriors outlasted Hilo 20-25, 20-25, 25-20, 26-24, 16-14 for the league’s Division I crown on Thursday night at their gym, which was filled with electricity and to its 1,800-seat capacity.
There’s never been a BIIF title match quite like that one, not only with the champion down 0-2 but winning the last two sets with extra points while staring at a deficit in both.
In Game 5, the Warriors were behind 10-6, and it looked like the Vikings would close out the 2 1/2-hour entertaining marathon for a title repeat. But Waiakea jumped on the back of senior outside hitter Kayla Kahauolopua, who had eight kills in the fifth set.
She was just as great in Game 4 when the Warriors trailed 15-11 and 23-22. Kahauolopua pounded 11 kills in the set, including the last two, and finished with 34 kills and a .270 hitting clip, following her routine of kicking it into another gear down the stretch.
Hilo (16-2) will host Kahuku of the OIA in an HHSAA first-round match at 4 p.m. Monday at the Vikings Gym.
No. 4 seed Waiakea (16-2) will play the Kapolei-Farrington winner in the state quarterfinals at 5 p.m. Thursday at McKinley High’s gym on Oahu.
As far as recent BIIF championship comebacks in other sports, the St. Joseph and Honokaa battle for the boys basketball title in 2016 comes close. That year, the Cardinals overcame an 18-point halftime deficit to stun the Dragons 51-50 for their first league Division II title since 2010.
“That 18-point comeback was about mental toughness. We were really ready to face anything, and we did it. It was strength of character and mental toughness,” said St. Joe’s Cole deSilva, in 2016, who scored a game-high 16 points and was later named the league’s player of the year.
Basketball and volleyball share the same concept of winning — it’s all about scoring runs on offense and stops on defense.
Waiakea assistant Rachelle Hanohano is the mother of coach Ashley Hanohano. The older Hanohano has been around for BIIF volleyball for three decades and coached her daughter, and assistants Jazmin Paakaula and Chelbie Hanohano, her other daughter, back in the day at St. Joseph.
Rachelle Hanohano knows what deSilva was talking about when dealing with a comeback that most people thought was next to impossible.
In fact, a trickle of fans left after Game 2, thinking to themselves, “No way, Waiakea can. I need to go sleep for work tomorrow.”
The championship did occur on Thursday night. The kids were off for teacher complex day. But the teachers and most parents did have to go to work on Friday.
“That game has to be the best championship I’ve seen in 30 years,” she said. “All of the strengthening and conditioning along with our mental toughness training truly paid off. We always try to do a pre-game activity, and our topics were visualization, self-talk, fear of failure, and the zone.
“It helped us achieve our goal of peak performance, not giving up. Hard work and teamwork definitely paid off.”
Hilo senior outside hitter Kawai Ua is built from the same mold as Kahauolopua. As the games grow older, they turn into great giants. But Ua, who had 12 kills, suffered an injury earlier in the week and didn’t have her usual jumping liftoff.
There was another battle inside the gym. It was between the Hilo and Waiakea fans. The Warrior students were loud and productive at pumping up their players.
Pahoa athletic director Hoku Haliniak’s first sports passion is volleyball, and she’s seen her share of raucous crowds.
“The crowd for both sides were great,” she said. “It was almost like being at a UH Wahine volleyball game, except there were Hilo fans and Waiakea fans.”
For the players, it was a treat to play in front of a packed house, noted Chris Leonard, the Pilipaa girls club coach and former longtime Waiakea boys assistant.
“The one nice thing about boys and girls volleyball is that they get to play in front of 1,800 in a high school gym, and it was electric,” he said. “I don’t recall a championship like that. The whole season was like that. On any given night, Hilo, Kamehameha or Waiakea could win or lose against each other.
“Credit to Waiakea. They started slow but had a lot of energy to dig out of a big hole and continued to fight. Hilo was awesome as well. They refused to quit, and it went the distance. Unfortunately, one had to lose, but it was a lot of fun to watch.”
After the marathon was over, the first thing that came to Waiakea coach Ashley Hanohano’s mind was not an immediate reaction but a question.
“How was that match, point for point?,” she said.
The obvious answer: It was the greatest comeback ever for a BIIF volleyball championship.