LIHUE — Waimea and Kauai High School split their series of girls volleyball games on Tuesday, as the Kauai Interscholastic Federation started Round 2 at the Kauai High School gymnasium.
Scores from Island School at Kapaa High School were not available.
Kapaa High School finished the KIF first round as the league’s title holder with a 6-0 record.
The Kauai High School junior varsity opened the night by taking two of its three-set series 25-19, 25-23 and dropping 17-15 to Waimea. Despite enjoying an eight-point lead in the final contest that played to 15 points, the Red Raiders let the Menehune in and dropped in extra points.
On the varsity courts, the Menehune prevailed in four sets 26-24, 13-25, 25-22 and 25-19.
Waimea and Kauai both stuttered to a slow start in the first set with the Menehune getting a foothold after tying the Red Raiders at 17-17 on a Kalia Yaris bang.
The Raiders reached 17 first on a Kiriana Foster hit, but Waimea answered with hits from Lokahi Malama and Yaris to stalemate the contest.
Kauai surged ahead to 20 on three points served up by Makenzie Nii that were enhanced with hits from Katelyn Lopes and Leila Caoagas.
Waimea answered with back-to-back bangs from Yaris to knot everything at 20-20.
A Menehune hitting error and a Kauai block put the Raiders up to 22, only to have Waimea answer with hits from Yaris and Kaulana Huihui-Caberto to stalemate at 22.
Kauai broke a 23-23 tie on a Lopes hit for 24, but had no answer to three straight points served up by Waimea’s Alyssa Gummerus for the 26-24 win.
Waimea, improving to 3-4 on the KIF season, 1-0 in the second round, next hosts Kapaa on Friday at Clem Gomes Gym. Kauai, dropping to 2-5 on the season, and 0-1 in Round 2, will visit Island School at Wilcox Gymnasium on Friday.
The JV games at both locations will serve up from 5:30 p.m. with the varsity contests starting 25 minutes after the end of the JV contests.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 808-245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
