KAPA‘A — The Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation boys volleyball standings tree was shaken on Friday night, when the standings leaders, the Island School Voyagers and Kaua‘i High School Red Raiders were upset by Waimea High School and Kapa‘a High School.
Over on the westside, the night belonged to Waimea High School, which took the Junior Varsity matches against Island School in straight sets, 25-12, 25-18, and 15-6. Moving to the varsity court, the Menehune downed the Voyagers in straight sets, 25-14, 25-23, and 25-22 to give the Voyagers their first blemish of the 2023 season.
At Bernice Hundley Gym, where the Kapa‘a High School media class was out in force to record the event, the Kapa‘a JV team was a 2-1 winner, 25-21, 20-25, and 15-13 over the JV Red Raiders. It took five sets for the varsity Warriors to drop Kaua‘i High School, 3-2 0n scores 23-25, 25-20, 18-25, 25-22, and 15-13.
“I don’t have my voice,” said Waimea High School coach Tori Kagawa on Saturday while helping Kekaha Elementary School athletes at the Mayor’s Track Meet at Vidinha Stadium. “This win was a lot of hard work by everyone.”
Kaua‘i High School was struck by the medical bug that saw three players not suited up for competition, restricting the bench to just two players. Additionally, Coach Merrill Carvalho dug deep to adjust his lineup after the Red Raiders’ libero was injured on the last play of the second set.
Starting libero Kaidyn Yago remained in the game, but libero responsibilities switched to Kala Edwards.
Kapa‘a High School’s Kyler Napoleon controlled the middle despite the strong attacks by Kaua‘i’s Noah Louis, Cade Myer, and Xaedan Valdez, who relished his outing’s blocks and aces to its fullest extent.
But the Warriors were relentless in forcing Raider miscues through the judicious hitting led by Moku Tolenoa, Steeler Burley and Kyle Baunsit, who delivered the final whack against the blocking efforts of Louis.
Kaua‘i’s Kyler Konishi enjoyed a great outing on all facets of the contest in a losing effort where every suited up Raiders player had a touch in trying to hold on.
During the second set, Kaua‘i came back from an 11-6 deficit on a strong service set by Kala‘i Esteban that included an ace in the string to pull to within two points, 15-13. The Raiders could not get to a tie in the set where, facing a 24-19 deficit, Isaiah Lacambra marked an ace and a Konishi whack moved Kaua‘i to 20 points before a Kaua‘i hitting error sealed the deal.
In the final set, Kaua‘i came back from a 3-0 hole to knot the contest a 8-8, and 9-9 before taking the lead 10-9 behind a Valdez block. But service errors and hitting errors combined with hits from Tolenoa kept Kapa‘a ahead. A Kapa‘a service error and a Valdez ace pulled Kaua‘i to a 14-13 deficit before Baunsit sealed the deal for Kapa‘a.
Kaua‘i next hosts Waimea on Tuesday night at Kaua‘i High School gym, while Island School hosts Kapa‘a at Wilcox Gymnasium on the school’s Puhi campus. The JV games at both sites start at 5 p.m., with the varsity contests to follow, but not earlier than 6:30 p.m.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 808-245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
