KAPA‘A — The Kaua‘i Red Raiders knew they had to win Friday night. With the Waimea Menehune easily sweeping the Island School Voyagers the same night, Merrill Carvalho’s squad needed to defeat the Kapa‘a Warriors in order to force a
KAPA‘A — The Kaua‘i Red Raiders knew they had to win Friday night.
With the Waimea Menehune easily sweeping the Island School Voyagers the same night, Merrill Carvalho’s squad needed to defeat the Kapa‘a Warriors in order to force a Round 1 playoff with the Menehune.
Despite a first-set scare, the Red Raiders asserted themselves at the top with Waimea by downing the Warriors, 25-23, 25-17 and 25-22 in boys volleyball action at Kapa‘a High School.
Facing the Warriors, Carvalho said there was extra urgency heading into the match knowing the Menehune would most likely emerge victorious Friday night.
“There’s always pressure on us, but more so tonight because we knew we had to win to force a playoff,” he said.
Carvalho said the Red Raiders were looking to get out of Kapa‘a by playing as few sets as possible, but in the first game it looked like the Warriors had a different plan.
The two teams traded points back and forth, with Kapa‘a using a strong team effort to push the game to a 22-all tie. The Warriors took the lead 23-22, when Kaua‘i’s service went out of bounds — a problem they had throughout the match. But the Red Raiders countered and tied the match at 23 and then took the lead with a pinpoint kill from Mikal Moranz and won the set on the next point.
From there, the Red Raiders cruised through the second set and once again fought off a late Warriors charge in the third to take the match.
“We definitely didn’t want to play more than need be tonight,” said Carvalho said, noting the Raiders knew they would have to play again the next night. “We had a lot of mental errors that kept them in the game, though.”
Although the Warriors were swept, the closeness of the games were impressive considering they were playing without setter Joshua Cram.
Cram rolled his ankle the previous night in practice and Tannery Henry filled in his place. Warrior head coach Matt Gonsalves said Henry has never played setter, yet was impressive in his debut.
“He was actually a bright spot for us tonight,” Gonsalves said. “He played pretty well.”
The Warriors fell to 2-4 on the season and have yet to beat either Kaua‘i or Waimea. Gonsalves said the Warriors are getting closer, but some of the inexperience-caused errors leave the team a step behind.
“I told the guys before the third set that we were playing good enough to be in the game,” Gonsalves said, “but we weren’t playing good enough to win the game.”
Gonsalves said he saw some improvement from his team in Round 1 and is looking forward to seeing what his team does now that it has some experience on the court. He said with the start of Round 2, inexperience can no longer be a crutch.
“We have to limit our unforced errors,” he said. “If we work on things and control what we can, we can compete with the rest of the teams.”
As for the Red Raiders, they will face the Menehune, who beat Island School 25-7 25-21 25-13 Friday, at home tonight at 7.
Carvalho said the Raiders need to limit their mistakes in order to beat the Menehune. Kaua‘i beat the Waimea in the season opener in five sets, but the Menehune returned the favor last week in a four-set victory.
Carvalho said Friday night was good practice for the Raiders heading into the playoff. He said the biggest factor for the Raiders is not slowing up.
“We’ll build leads of four or five points and we’ll get complacent. We relax,” he said.
Carvalho said despite the errors, his team rose to the occasion.
“It’s good to know we got a win tonight against a tough opponent,” he said.
