KAPA‘A — The Waimea Lady Menehune and Kaua‘i Red Raiders continued on a path toward a potential first-round playoff, as each came away with victories on Tuesday night. Waimea fought back from an early deficit and did what it has
KAPA‘A — The Waimea Lady Menehune and Kaua‘i Red Raiders continued on a path toward a potential first-round playoff, as each came away with victories on Tuesday night.
Waimea fought back from an early deficit and did what it has been accustomed to doing — winning decisive fifth sets.
The Lady Menehune battled with the Kapa‘a Lady Warriors for a 16-25, 25-18, 25-23, 21-25, 15-9 victory to improve to 5-0 on the season.
Kaua‘i had a difficult go with the Island School Voyagers, but came up with the big points at the tail end of each set for a 25-20, 25-20, 25-23 win.
The results set the stage for an all important matchup on Friday, when the Raiders head west to face the Menehune.
Kaua‘i (4-1) needs a victory to force a first-round playoff, while Waimea can clinch the first round with a win.
If the playoff is necessary, it will either take place on Sep. 21 or 24.
Waimea looked to be in danger of dropping its first KIF match since 2008 on Tuesday, as it was tied at 6-6 in the final set. But the Lady Menehune took over from that point, with Jayme Jacinto first finishing off a Searra Kaohi feed and then following it up with a service ace for a two-point advantage.
Fiare Moe added an ace of her own to give Waimea a three-point lead at 11-8 and back-to-back kills by Brandee Victorino off of Moe sets gave the defending champs six match points at 14-8.
Kapa‘a saved the first, but Jacinto had the clincher off another set from Moe, slamming one cross-court and hitting the sideline.
She led her team with 15 kills in the match, also adding five digs and three blocks.
Victorino finished with 11 kills, 11 blocks and three digs for the night. Mariah Oliver played big at the net with 10 kills and nine blocks.
Moe led Waimea with 19 assists, while Kaohi followed with 15.
Tatiana Rita came on late in the match and finished with six kills, three aces and three digs.
The Warriors attack was led by Tylenn Morita’s 17 kills. She also added six digs.
Hartley Dabin totaled 15 kills and had five digs.
Jessily Artaho-Aki continued to fill up the stat sheets and tallied a match-high 41 assists, five kills, nine blocks and six digs.
Ciarra Wainwright had eight kills and 10 blocks. Shannon Paleka led the way with 15 digs.
Kapa‘a took command of the opening set with an 8-2 run to grab a 16-9 advantage, then ended the set on an 8-3 run when Morita killed an Artaho-Aki feed for the early lead.
The Warriors continued with the momentum to take an 8-4 lead in the second set, but the Menehune eventually evened things up at 17-17. From there, it was all Waimea, which closed out the set by winning eight of the final nine points and evened the match when a Kapa‘a kill found the net.
Waimea jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the third, but Kapa‘a fought back and eventually tied things up at 15-15.
The Lady Menehune turned things around to win six of seven points and take a 21-16 edge, only to see Kapa‘a fight back to level the set at 23-23.
Rita gave Waimea a set point when she notched a kill on a Kaohi pass, with the club needing just the one chance as a Kapa‘a shot went long of the baseline, giving the Lady Menehune a 2-1 lead in the match.
Kapa‘a appeared in control for much of the fourth set, though Waimea hung around and got within one at 18-17.
However, Kapa‘a never gave up the lead the whole set and took things to a decisive fifth frame with a Waimea shot didn’t clear the net.
Waimea’s junior varsity squad also notched a close victory over Kapa‘a, 25-21, 18-25, 25-21.
Kaua‘i’s JV was a 25-21, 25-10, 25-19 winner over Island School.
Friday will see Waimea host Kaua‘i and Kapa‘a (1-4) host Island (0-5).
