KEALAKEKUA — Honokaa didn’t need to breathe fire on offense with tons of kills because its solid ball-control was more than enough to stifle Pahoa. ADVERTISING KEALAKEKUA — Honokaa didn’t need to breathe fire on offense with tons of kills
KEALAKEKUA — Honokaa didn’t need to breathe fire on offense with tons of kills because its solid ball-control was more than enough to stifle Pahoa.
The Dragons played clean ball and defeated the Daggers 20-25, 25-20, 25-13, 25-18 in the Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division II third-place game Saturday at Konawaena’s Ellison Onizuka Gym.
In a stat that summed up the match, Pahoa had far, far more unforced errors than Honokaa, 50-30.
The last set was the best example of the Daggers’ struggles with passing in serve-receive, setting and hitting. They had 19 giveaway points; the Dragons had only eight.
Basically, that meant Honokaa only needed to score six points in the fourth set. Monica Muskat, a 5-foot-10 senior middle blocker, had two kills, while Randy Iona, Tehane Reynolds and Kayla Requelman had one each. The other point was Ashlynn Kaiamakini’s ace.
Muskat finished with 13 kills, Reynolds nine, Kaiamakini six, Iona five and Requelman four for the Dragons (10-7), who qualified for the Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II state tournament for the first time since 2010, the end of a four-year run.
The season is over for the Daggers (8-8), who lose only one starting senior but a key one in 5-8 senior middle Erleen Oguma. She had 15 kills while Jordyn Tagalicod added 11 kills.
In fact, the firepower part was pretty even. Pahoa had 38 kills while Honokaa had 37 kills. But a difference of 20 unforced errors was too big of a deficit for the Daggers.
In the first set, Pahoa had a somewhat comfortable 22-16 lead that evaporated with four straight unforced errors. Suddenly, the Daggers led just 22-20 and the Dragons were on a comeback hunt.
But Oguma knocked down her fifth kill of the set from the back row. Tapenga Orevillo followed with a kill, and Tagalicod, who had four kills, closed the set with an ace.
The Daggers played great defense against Muskat, timing their blocks on their jump and aligning their back-row defenders to dig her. She had one kill and one block in Game 1.
“We finally pulled ourselves together in the second game,” Honokaa coach Mike Fernandez said. “Our passing started to come around. We had a hard time covering angle (shots) and our back row adjusted and that was a turning point.
In the second set, Pahoa served seven aces, but the other part of its ball-control game — passing in serve-receive — was wobbly, which led to free balls and more swings for the Dragons.
Muskat found her groove and pounded six kills, including four down the stretch and the final point to close Game 2.
“She was frustrated in the first set, but she put it all together and came out strong after,” Fernandez said. “More than anything it was all about heart for her.”
In the third set, Honokaa served tough and piled up six aces, and the ones that didn’t drop led to shaky swings from the Daggers, who had more unforced errors, 12-5.
Oguma slammed five kills but her offense couldn’t offset Muskat’s four kills and all the giveaway points by the Daggers, who trailed 22-9 at one point. From there, Oguma put down three consecutive kills, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
The swing third set closed on back-to-back Pahoa hitting errors, and from there Honokaa continued its clean-ball play.
