The lady Red Raiders have been solid all around. No KIF team of any fall sport can eclipse what the Red Raider volleyball girls did this season. Not even Waimea’s football team could saunter through this league with such confidence
The lady Red Raiders have been solid all around.
No KIF team of any fall sport can eclipse what the Red Raider volleyball girls did this season.
Not even Waimea’s football team could saunter through this league with such confidence and ease.
There wasn’t a team that could even touch the surface of Kaua’i’s seemingly intangible vulnerability.
With their 8-0 record, nobody could even dent it.
If there was a weakness in this Red Raider line-up, it remains unseen. Will it surface in states? Maybe. But we rarely, if ever, saw it here in the KIF.
The lady Red Raiders have been solid all around.
Just take a look at the numbers: Kaua’i attempted 565 total kills, swatted down 289 with only 69 errors reported. This adds up to a total of .244 efficiency in eight games.
Kaua’i’s dominance was mostly a result of its incredible depth.
12 of its 14 players on the roster recorded digs during their eight-game season. Seven of them had over 10. Five had over 30.
Tiana Lum-Tucker was by far the most dominant with 57 digs, Kehaulani Regidor had 52, and Ashley Kawaihalau had 44.
Lum-Tucker also dominated the KIF kills column with 67, and eight of her teammates smacked down their share with Regidor putting down 51, Kawaihalau with 46, and Kandice Cummings not far behind with 42.
But you can’t leave out the essential impact of setter Tiare Toulon, who was primarily responsible for making these kills happen.
Everyone got into the action.
And that has become the secret to these girl’s unbeatable performance.
To coach Rich Roberts, this team is reaping the benefits of off-season development, which in turn tapped its current depth and talent.
This development began to mature in last year’s tight victory over previous league dominator Waimea-a win which gave them a KIF title and some velocity coming into this season.
But Kaua’i’s players continued to work hard, training in the off-season and developing their skills. And for the last four years, the results have been difficult for KIF teams to avoid.
This team has done a sensational job.
“These girls really work hard for this,” said Red Raider Coach Richard Roberts, whose daughter also played for Kaua’i and is now a freshmen phenom at William Woods college. “We were also very lucky to get so many girls with that much talent on the same team.”
Roberts said this season is clearly a product of numbers, a highly regarded coaching staff and a little luck.
“We have a very talented team, but this season is also due, in part, to the staff that works with them every day.”
Roberts gives credit to his assistants Chad Delanoza, Lisa Cummings, Roberta Fitzgerald, and Darrell Akimoto, for molding this team into a working machine.
It has been the perfect mix. The chemistry behind Kaua’i’s all-business, in-the-game visage is one unparralleled by any other fall KIF team..
Now that their regular season has come to an end, the Red Raiders’are looking forward to state’s to test their abilities against some of the best teams in Hawaii.
Ranked in the top ten for much of the season, Kaua’i hopes to do use their current momentum to place high at the state level.
