LIHU‘E — The Red Raiders came out strong and in attacking mode as Kaua‘i High School hosted the Kapa‘a Warriors girls volleyball team Tuesday night at the Kaua‘i High School gym. Kaua‘i was dominant while beating the Warriors in straight sets, 25-13, 25-14 and 25-10.
The Red Raiders opened up the first set with six unanswered points thanks to solid play at the net from Adrienne Graycochea and Kristle Henry. When it seemed Kapa‘a would start to comeback even slightly, the Red Raiders notched up its defense and set themselves up for easy kills. In the final 14 points of the set, Kaua‘i would win 10 of them, including an ace from Seana Date to close it out 25-13.
The second set was more of the same story for Kapa‘a as it struggled to get anything going offensively. Despite solid play from Sara Agoot and Justice Brown-Kimura, most of the night the Warriors had a hard time breaking down the defense of the Red Raiders. Kaua‘i got outstanding all-around play from Tahra Kaui, Jondee Rivera and Ashley Ramelb, which propelled the Red Raiders to a 25-14 win and 2-0 lead heading into set number three.
Although the Warriors seemed to be down and out, they came out battling in the third set capitalizing on a few Red Raider mistakes and giving them an early 5-4 lead. Unfortunately for Kapa‘a, the Red Raiders bounced back strong once again, this time at the service line. Kawehi Louis-Diamond would tally up three aces in a row giving the Red Raiders a 9-5 lead. Almost immediately after, Graycochea had her run on the line with four aces of her own, which would give Kaua‘i the commanding 15-6 lead.
Kapa‘a would never give up battling until the end, getting the score as close as 19-10 off of a couple of nice aces from Agoot and Brown-Kimura. Kaua‘i would respond with by winning the last six points of the match thanks to four aces from Kaui, giving the Red Raiders the 25-10 win and the victory in straight sets.
The Red Raiders would also get solid bench play from Pua Dizol, Isabelle Freudig and Mariah Opalek.
The win puts the Red Raiders at 3-2 as they prepare to host the Island School Voyagers Friday at the Kaua‘i High School Gym at 6:30 p.m.
In junior varsity action, the Red Raiders took down the Warriors in straight sets, 25-19, 25-18 and 25-11.
The junior varsity Red Raiders got solid play from Krysta Schnackenberg, Teyanni Esaki and Harley Ka‘eo.
The Warriors received all around solid play from freshman Ana Carvalho-Toloai.
• Rick Killeen, sports writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 237) or sports@thegardenisland.com.
