The Waiakea High girls volleyball team’s state run ended at home, as the Warriors were swept by visiting Kapolei High on Monday night during the first round of the HHSAA Division I state playoffs.
Despite a close start to the first set, the Hurricanes dominated the remainder of the match — prevailing in straight sets of 25-15, 25-12 and 25-8.
“I think we were kind of nervous, and of course, we’re kind of young,” Waiakea head coach Laura Thompson said. “We know Kapolei got better, and we were just not really ready. They got us on really good serves, and that shook us up a bit. There was a lot of pressure, since we really wanted to go to O‘ahu.”
Waiakea’s offense was unable to keep up with Kapolei’s — which was led by the hitting of Leila Paraocan with 14 kills and Matilyn Royal with 13, as well as Anny Scott’s 41 assists.
The Hurricanes hit .407, .500 and .452 while the Warriors struggled to get it going — hitting .111, .077 and .000.
Waiakea’s defense was led by Lexie Uchima, who notched 16 digs and received 21 serves.
Because Waiakea lost in the first round, it will not have the opportunity to enter the consolation bracket. Teams must make it to at least the quarterfinals in order to qualify for consolation matches.
The Warriors end their season 6-8 overall (excluding invitational tournaments), and went 6-7 during the regular season.
Waiakea was the BIIF DI runner-up, falling 3-0 to Kamehameha schools – Hawai‘i in the BIIF championship two weeks ago after overcoming Hilo High 3-2 in the semifinal for its season-first victory against the Vikings.
Thompson said that the semifinal victory over Hilo was her team’s proudest accomplishment this season.
“We got consistently better throughout the season, and that was kind of the high point,” she said. “We went in there not knowing what was gonna happen, and we were just there to play. I know for (the match against Kapolei), we went in with the same mentality — but we were nervous.”
The Warriors and Hurricanes last encountered each other early in the season, during an invitational tournament at KSH.
During that match — which the Hurricanes won 2-0 — a spike from Kapolei’s Malinah Purcell-Telefoni hit Waiakea’s Sadie Calma in the head (unintentionally), giving her a concussion.
“We were a little nervous about that before the game,” Thompson said. “Also, because we had heard some of their girls had signed to (UH) Manoa.”
After Monday’s game, Purcell-Telefoni approached Calma to apologize, and the pair hugged it out.
Kapolei (12-2) will return to O‘ahu to face Maui DI champion No. 4 Baldwin High (13-1) in the quarterfinals tomorrow at Moanalua High.
KS-Hawai‘i
No. 2 KSH, which received a first-round bye, will face Roosevelt High in the quarterfinals tomorrow on O‘ahu. The Rough Riders defeated KS-Maui 3-0 on Monday.
