The Central Pacific Bank/BIIF volleyball championships were held Saturday at Kamehameha Schools – Hawai‘i — concluding what has been an especially competitive, unpredictable and emotional season.
KSH defeated Waiakea High to win Division I, Hawaii Preparatory Academy defeated Ka‘u High to win Division II and Konawaena High defeated Kohala High to nab the BIIF’s third DII state championship berth.
KSH 3 – Waiakea 0
The Warriors closed out a perfect BIIF season, winning on their home court for their fourth straight BIIF DI title.
“We have a young squad with a lot of first timers, so it was exciting for them,” KSH head coach Guy Enriquez said. “We have one senior who’s been on that trip for four straight years, so it’s nothing new to her — but for the majority of the team it’s a great new experience.”
KSH prevailed in straight sets of 25-11, 25-20 and 25-10.
“It was a little disappointing,” Waiakea head coach Laura Thompson said. “I think we expected to play better than we did. I know the girls were pretty nervous — for a lot of them, this was their first BIIF championship.”
After entering the playoffs at No. 3, Waiakea upset No. 2 Hilo High in the semifinals — narrowly winning a five-set thriller on Thursday to secure a spot in the BIIF championship and the state playoffs.
“I feel like a lot of our energy went into (Thursday’s semifinal,” Thompson said. “Everybody was on point, they were talking, they were energetic. We went into that game not worried about the results, we just wanted to play and whatever happens, happens.”
During the championship game, KSH was led by the hitting of Maela Honma with 20 kills. Honma also notched 14 digs.
Maile Kuamoo had a gargantuan outing, notching 36 assists. Kealohi Dudoit led KSH’s defense with 25 digs.
Lexie Uchima led Waiakea’s defense with 20 digs.
“(Waiakea’s) defense was solid,” Enriquez said. “We finally had to roll some off space to take them out of their game, and control it from there.”
Both teams are now bound for the HHSAA DI state playoffs, which will begin next week. Seeds and matchups have not yet been announced, but Waiakea is slated to host an Oahu opponent on Monday, Nov. 6 for the first round of playoffs.
KSH is hoping for a top-two seed, but it’s too early to say. The Star-Advertiser has ranked KSH at No. 3 for most of the season, and Oahu teams tend to receive higher playoffs seeds than BIIF teams.
“We’ve always been looked past,” Enriquez said. “Even though we’ve had better records, we always lose the seeding to an OIA team.”
The Star-Advertiser ranks KS-Kapalama at No. 1, and Punahou School at No. 2.
HPA 3 – Ka‘u 2
In the most neck-and-neck BIIF DII bout of the season, No. 2 HPA prevailed over the No. 1 Ka‘u — dealing the Trojans their first loss of the season.
The pair took turns winning sets — HPA 25-12, Ka‘u 25-18, Ka‘u 25-21 and HPA 25-15 — until the fifth, which went deep into extra points and ended as Ka Makani prevailed 20-18.
“It was exciting,” HPA head coach Dana Craven said. “It was an amazing match, especially for the final. The fact that we had lost to Ka‘u (during the regular season), I was really proud of the girls — they played so well.
“It could have gone either way. At the end, I remember looking at the scoreboard at 14-14 and thinking ‘well, let’s see what happens.’ Ka‘u played their hearts out, and I want to shout out to them for being an amazing team.”
Ka‘u was led by the hitting of Precious Mareko-Ke with 15 kills. Jazmyn Navarro put up 21 assists.
On defense, Leah Kaupu and Shaylie Martinez led the Trojans with ten digs each.
Morgot Lewis and Mya Pinkert led HPA’s offense with 11 and ten kills, respectively. Brooke Samura was also crucial to that offense, notching 31 assists.
Maile Imonen was Ka Makani’s defensive powerhouse — notching 20 kills.
State playoffs are just over a week away for the pair — as the first round is slated to start Nov. 7 on Oahu.
Konawaena 3 – Kohala 0
After suffering a loss to HPA during the semifinals, the Wildcats swept the Cowgirls to keep their postseason alive.
Konawaena prevailed in straight sets of 25-18, 25-21 and 25-23.
The Wildcats’ offense was led by Kaelyn Shibuya with 12 kills. Isabella Stith led Konawaena’s defense with 17 digs. Setter Aaedyn Kauhi recorded a whopping 29 assists.
Kaila Marquez led Kohala’s offense with nine kills, supported by Jayline Salvador’s 13 assists. Sydnie Marquez notched 13 digs to lead the Cowgirls’ defense.