HONOLULU — The Kaua‘i High School boys volleyball team entered the New City Nissan Boys Division II Volleyball State Championships unranked as a program. They will leave O’ahu as the fourth best team in the state. A total of eight
HONOLULU — The Kaua‘i High School boys volleyball team entered the New City Nissan Boys Division II Volleyball State Championships unranked as a program. They will leave O’ahu as the fourth best team in the state. A total of eight teams participated in the tournament.
“For our first year, coming to the state tournament and taking fourth, it speak volumes of these players,” said Kaua‘i head coach Merrill Carvalho. “The senior leadership this year was unbelievable. Even though we fell short, we accomplished our goal of winning KIF. Another goal was of course to win the state championship, but also just to make it into the top four.”
Kaua‘i opened the tournament Thursday with a win in straight sets over No. 4 Farrington High School, which immediately gave the Raiders a shot at the semifinals.
The Red Raiders ran into No. 1 ranked Hawai‘i Baptist Academy in the semifinals Friday at Moanalua High School in Honolulu. Kaua‘i couldn’t match the amount of fire power the Eagles threw at them and lost in straight sets, 13-25, 13-25 and 12-25.
The loss dropped Kaua‘i into a match to decide the third place team, but the No. 2 ranked Seabury Hall of Maui stood in its way. The Saturday match took place at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu.
The Raiders rolled to a first set win taking down the Spartans 25-21, but lost the second set in a hard-fought 24-26 set. That set the stage for a third and final set, which Seabury was able to edge out the Raiders 13-15, ending the tournament for Kaua‘i.
“Just the experience of playing the two top ranked schools in the state in Hawai‘i Baptist and Seabury Hall, it just shows where our program is headed,” Carvalho said. “We are going in the right direction. We have a lot of good young players and some JV players coming up, so we should be very competitive moving forward.”
Although the Raiders season ends on a pair of bitter notes, Kaua‘i played its best volleyball of the season over the last month.
“For us representing the KIF, it just shows how tough our league is,” Carvalho said. “So with Waimea, Kapa’a and Island School helping us out throughout the season to get us to this point, it just says volumes about what these players on Kaua‘i can accomplish.”
• Rick Killeen, sports writer, can be reached at 245-0437 or sports@thegardenisland.com.
