KAPA‘A — At around 9 p.m. Tuesday night, Kaua‘i’s Grant Basquez dug out a Jeremiah Obrero spike. That set up Marcus Carvalho to set the ball for Kalawai‘i Judd, who hit a thunderous kill. The crowd then erupted in a
KAPA‘A — At around 9 p.m. Tuesday night, Kaua‘i’s Grant Basquez dug out a Jeremiah Obrero spike. That set up Marcus Carvalho to set the ball for Kalawai‘i Judd, who hit a thunderous kill. The crowd then erupted in a deafening cheer. That point let the Kaua‘i High School Red Raiders earn a win in a memorable match over the Kapa‘a High School Warriors that went five sets and enabled the Raiders to clinch the second half.
“It was a very emotional game,” said Kaua‘i head coach Merrill Carvalho. “Both emotionally and physically.”
Kaua‘i battled its way to a 25-20, 21-25, 30-28, 13-25 and 20-18 win at the Kapa‘a High School gym. The final point was just part of the story as both teams clawed its way through the game and played at their highest level of the season.
The Raiders leapt out in front after the first set, but Kapa‘a responded in the second set with an equally well-played set to tie things up 1-1.
The third set was arguably the most entertaining one. With the score 22-22, the teams went on to trade points for the next 12, which put the score at 28-28 when Kaua‘i would finally break through. A Dominic Armstrong kill led to an Obrero attempt that went wide of the line, which gave the Red Raiders the set and the 2-1 lead.
The set was an emotional one that finished in Kaua‘i’s favor, which would have seemed to help them heading in to the fourth set but Kapa‘a showed a lot of resiliency.
The Warriors dominated the fourth set with Obrero and Kristoffer Astrero leading the way. Astrero turned in his best performance of the season and came up with big points when Kapa‘a needed them most.
“Watching that fourth set unfold was very concerning,” Carvalho said.
According to Carvalho, senior captain Randon Valenciano and others took the team aside after the set and talked to one another about what the team needed to do to win.
“The boys told me, ‘Coach, don’t worry. We got this,’” Carvalho said. “Credit goes to the boys and they were able to pull it out.”
With the second half of the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation volleyball season on the line and both teams playing at a high level, the match seemed destined to go five sets.
The Warriors would keep its roll going in the fifth set and it jumped out to a 7-3 lead, which prompted a timeout from Carvalho.
After the timeout, the Red Raiders slowly crawled its way back winning 9 of the next 16 points to tie the set 12-12.
At that point, both Kapa‘a’s Obrero and Kaua‘i’s Archie Vallatini seemed to match each other point for point as both teams made an effort to go to them exclusively. The Warriors took an 18-17 lead after an Obrero kill that led to another Raider timeout. Kapa‘a returned to commit two costly unforced errors that gave Kaua‘i the lead 19-18, which led to the Judd final point and the match.
“We have a saying that says ‘Feed the beast,’” Carvalho said. “I told Archie (Vallatini) before the season he is our beast, so before the fifth set I told our setters that we needed to ride Archie and feed the beast.”
The win means the Raiders clinch the second half of play, and with the Warriors winning the first half it sets the stage for these two teams to meet once again in an even bigger match with the KIF title on the line. Regardless of the outcome, these two teams have battled since the second game of the season (which went five sets), which should make for a momentous title game.
“Whatever coaches can make the adjustments and have players make the emotional adjustment will come out on top,” Carvalho said.
The title game will take place at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in Kapa‘a.
