LIHU‘E — The Waimea High School volleyball teams swept their series over Kapa‘a High, 3-0 in the junior-varsity and 3-0 in the varsity matchups Friday night at the Clem Gomes Gym in Waimea.
Over at the Kaua‘i High School gym, the JV Voyagers were 3-0 winners over the JV Red Raiders, and the varsity Red Raiders honored graduating seniors — Nahe Bukoski, Zoe Carvalho, Kili Estrella and Gianna Lewis — and nabbed a 3-1 win over Island School.
Contesting in the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation games, the JV Menehune held off the JV Lady Warriors, 25-20, 25-17 and 25-16, while the varsity Menehune wahine kept its undefeated record intact by downing the Lady Warriors, 25-22, 25-16 and 25-9.
A nearly full house of enthusiastic fans at the Kaua‘i High gym cheered loudly as the JV Voyagers took all three of its sets, 25-11, 25-21 and 25-17.
That set the stage for the Raider Senior Night. The Lady Red Raiders took the first two sets, 25-22, 25-19, before being stymied by the Lady Voyagers 16-25 in the third set, forcing the fourth set and a delay in honoring the graduating seniors. Settling down, Kaua‘i completed its evening with a 25-21 win over Island School to move on to celebration time.
Lead exchanges ruled the opening set, with Island School’s Liliana “Lili” De Souza’s antics at the net knotting the contest at 10 and sparking rousing cheer from the Voyager fan base. Kianalei Kamalani served up another ace, knotting the set at 11 after capitalizing on a Red Raider miscue.
Kaua‘i stayed in the fray on solid hitting by Elise Yukimura and Bukoski until Island School pulled ahead on a string of serves by Liko Edwards that moved the Voyagers to a 16-14 edge.
A Bukoski whack moved Kaua‘i to a 22-20 edge, only to have the Voyagers’ Brooklyn Valentino’s hit pull Island School to a digit deficit, 22-23. But the Island School effort faltered as a net violation and hitting error gave Kaua‘i the contest.
The intense competition continued until the third set, when Island School’s Brittany Valentino served up a string of five unanswered points to pull the Voyagers to a 23-10 advantage over Kaua‘i. The string was fueled by hits from Brooklyn Valentino and Kamalani before a lift violation ended the string.
Yukimura brought the Raiders to a 16-24 deficit before a hitting error forced the fourth set, 16-25.
The Friday-night results set the stage for Thanksgiving week action when Waimea will travel to the Kaua‘i High and Island School will host Kapa‘a at the Wilcox Gymnasium in Puhi. The JV games serve up at 5 p.m. followed by the varsity contest starting 25 minutes following the completion of the JV games.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
