Kaua‘i 3, Waimea 2 – A light touch by Jori Jasper capped off a long rally that brought Kaua‘i High School to matchpoint and closer to its first Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation title in five years.
Kaua‘i (11-2) convincingly won the fourth set, forcing a fifth, where the Red Raiders went on to win 25-21, 18-25, 20-25, 25-18 and 16-14.
“We just wanted to play hard because it could have been our last game,” Jasper said. “I just thought ‘go for everything.’”
Jasper, the Raiders leading hitter of the season, finished the night with 17 kills and two blocks.
The Raiders came dangerously close to dropping to the defending champions of Waimea High School after the Lady Menehune (9-4) shot up to an 8-1 lead in the fifth. They Menehune had been on a roll toward the end of the season, going undefeated in the second round to force last night’s playoff and were on track to winning their third consecutive KIF title.
But the Round 1 champs of Kaua‘i’s fought back. Kaua‘i had slowly built up momentum to close the gap and senior setter Mikaila Naholoholo faked a set for a quick sneak over the net to bring the Raiders within two at 13-11. Shyanne Sadora then served up an ace to bring them even closer and on the next play sneaked a tip past Waimea’s Brandee Victorino to tie.
When Kaua‘i won that final rally in extra points, the packed gym erupted with cheers while tears of joy filled the eyes of the players who have seen Kaua‘i go from the bottom of the league last year two years to winning the championship.
First-year varsity head coach Corey Morishita was at a loss for words that he couldn’t even recount the last few minutes of the game. When asked how he felt when his players overcame such a deficit in the final set, Morishita simply replied: “I don’t even remember.”
The teams started off strongly. They each went point-for-point in the first with neither team holding more than a three-point lead. It was Waimea’s Jazzlyn Bradbury’s best defensive frame of the night — posting six blocks of her total eight blocks then.
Waimea’s best set offensively came in the third when Victorino posted five of her match-total 12 kills. Sophomore co-captain Jayme Jacinto also finished the night with 12 kills, while setter Fiare Moe had 20 assists and libero Vakeesha Lagazo had 11 digs.
Naholoholo finished with 32 assists and two aces, Sadora had five blocks on the night and Malia Kagawa had five kills.
The Raiders now move on to the Division II state volleyball championships on O‘ahu to be held at November 5 through 8.
