HONOLULU — Brackets for the Hawaii High School Athletic Association (HHSAA) girls volleyball state championship playoffs were released late at night on Wednesday.
Five Big Island Interscholastic Association (BIIF) teams received berths; Kamehameha Schools – Hawai‘i and Waiakea High in Division I — and Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy, Ka‘u High and Konawaena High in Division II.
As usual, both the DI and DII brackets are double-elimination, with losing teams entering consolation brackets.
After his team won the Central Pacific Bank/BIIF DI championship, KSH head coach Guy Enriquez said that he thought the Warriors deserved a top-two seed — but was concerned that O‘ahu teams would be favored.
Enriquez and his team needn’t worry any longer, as they received the No. 2 seed — behind their sister school, No. 1 KS-Kapalama.
For months, the Honolulu Star-Adervtiser’s poll ranked KSH at No. 3 behind Punahou School — and ScoringLive’s previous rankings placed the Warriors behind Moanalua High, which KSH defeated in an invitational tournament.
The Buffanblu ended the season losing to KS-Kapalama, and Na Menehune fell to Mililani High in the OIA DI finals. Neither team received a top-four seed. No. 3 went to Mililani and No. 4 went to Baldwin High.
Punahou and Moanalua will instead start their playoffs in the first round, as will Waiakea.
After finishing as the BIIF’s runner-up, Waiakea was scheduled for one last home game — a first-round bout against Kapolei High. If Waiakea wins, it will advance to the quarterfinals two days later to face Baldwin on O‘ahu.
The other first-round matchups are Moanalua versus Kalani High, Punahou versus Kahuku High and KS-Maui versus Roosevelt High. The winner of KSM versus RHS will play against KSH.
The final round will be held Friday, Nov. 10 at Cannon Activities center in Laie, O‘ahu.
BIIF DII champion HPA was seeded No. 4, receiving a first-round bye. The other three byes went to No. 1 Mid-Pacific Institute, No. 2 Waialua High and No. 3 Seabury Hall.
Konawaena and Ka‘u will enter the bracket in the first round.
The Trojans will play against Damien, which ended its regular season season ranked No. 3 in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu (ILH) DII with an 8-5 record, later becoming the runner-up in the ILH’s DII Intermediate championship. If Ka‘u wins, it will go up against Waialua in the quarterfinals.
The Wildcats will play against University Lab, winner of the ILH intermediate tournament. The Jr. Bows finished the regular season 8-5, standing at No. 2 in ILH DII behind Mid-Pacific. The winner between Konawaena and ULS will play its quarterfinal against Seabury Hall.
The other two first-round matchups in the DII bracket are Kapaa High versus Hawai‘i Baptist and Waipahu High versus Maui Prep.
The DII finals will also take place Nov. 10 at Cannon Activities Center.
