PUHI — The seniors being honored at the Island School Senior Night made a big impression at the Wilcox Gymnasium Tuesday during the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation boys volleyball games.
The Voyagers split its series against Kapa‘a High School by dropping the junior varsity match, 17-25, 25-22 and 17-25, before coming back to win the varsity series in three sets, 25-17, 25-20 and 25-17 against the Kapa‘a Warriors.
Island School seniors Josh Dobashi, Reed Brown, Dylan Date, Hanalei Wann-Keli‘iho‘omalu, Zeke Gamby and AJ Galiza were saluted for their contributions to the team on the Voyagers’ last home game before the boys volleyball season ends.
Three of the seniors — Dobashi, Date and Keli‘iho‘omalu — figured prominently in the night’s sets by anchoring the front row with hits, blocks and an occasional set.
Island School, with the enthusiastic support of its home base fans, roared onto the courts to take an early 10-1 lead over Kapa‘a before Kapa‘a’s Anthony Durocher and James Kessler stopped the movement with whacks.
Kapa‘a withstood the barrage of miscues mixed in with heavy hitting from Voyagers Dobashi, Date and Mark Fitzgerald before the crowd went wild when coach Tony Magaoay subbed in Bodie Lanini, who closed the set on his very first touch.
The second set opened with no less than four service errors from the Voyagers and Warriors before the Voyagers gained control, breaking away from an 8-8 deadlock behind Date blocks and hits. A Dobashi hit lit the boards 12-9 in favor of Island School, followed by an ace and a Kapa‘a passing error to move the scoreboard to 14-9.
Mark Fitzgerald hammers and Warrior hitting errors built the Voyager lead until a Kala Rall hammer paused the score at 16-11 in favor of Island School. However, the Warriors could not close the gap before Dobashi hammered the set to a close.
Island School jumped to an early third-set lead behind whacks from Dobashi and Date before Kapa‘a’s Durocher stopped the train at a 10-4 Voyager lead. Point exchanges dominated the middle ground before the Voyagers pulled to a 23-12 lead behind the hitting of Mark Fitzgerald and Date, punctuated by several Kapa‘a miscues.
Kapa‘a’s Shrew Tolenoa took the server’s box and peeled off five unanswered points behind the hitting of Rall and help from Voyager miscues before Island School put the game away on solid hits from Mark Fitzgerald and Wann-Keli‘iho‘omalu.
Results from the Waimea High visit to the Kaua‘i High School gym were not available at press time.
Island School makes the trip to the Clem Gomes Gym Friday to take on Waimea High.
Kapa‘a will host Kaua‘i High School at the Bernice Hundley Gym.
The first serve for the JV games go off at 5 p.m. followed by the varsity game serving up 20 minutes following the JV contest.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
