KAPA‘A — Waimea middle blocker Brandee Victorino served up a string of six points in the fifth set to clinch the Menehunes’ series against Kapa‘a, 3-2, Friday night at the Bernice Hundley Gym. In a see-saw battle that has been
KAPA‘A — Waimea middle blocker Brandee Victorino served up a string of six points in the fifth set to clinch the Menehunes’ series against Kapa‘a, 3-2, Friday night at the Bernice Hundley Gym.
In a see-saw battle that has been the norm in the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation girls’ volleyball season, Victorino put away the fifth set with a kill, two aces in her string of six points, and had a tandem block with Robin Moura in the tiebreaker set.
Waimea finished the night dropping the first set, 27-29, before coming back 25-18 in the second set, losing 23-25 in the third before taking the fourth and fifth, 25-15 and 15-6, respectively.
Earlier in the night, the Kapa‘a junior varsity took its series against Waimea, 2-1, dropping its first set 25-27 before rebounding 25-15, 25-17.
Scores from the Kaua‘i High School at Island School series were not available at press time.
In varsity action, Waimea opened the first set 2-0 behind two straight net violations by the Warriors, but Kapa‘a rebounded with two straight kills from Tylenn Morita, a strong hitter who ended the five-set night with at least 20 kills, her strongest showing coming in the first set where she finished with seven kills.
From that point, Kapa‘a took charge, staying ahead of Waimea by at least a point until Waimea’s Tatiana Rita took the service box and served up a string of five points before netting out, 17-15.
The jockeying continued until a Morita kill put Kapa‘a up 27-26 followed by Marisa Sanchez-Dunning serving up an ace before a Menehune hitting miscue gave the set to Kapa‘a, 29-27.
Victorino and Rita came back strong for the Menehune in the second set, the middle blocker getting two solid blocks and four kills while Rita backed the action with three kills, the senior blocker putting the game away with a dump off a Kapa‘a block, 25-18.
Jayme Jacinto took the Menehune reins in the third set to finish with seven kills and an ace, but Kapa‘a’s Morita got help from Hartley Dabin, the Warrior pair combining for at least nine kills in the 25-23 win, a Dabin kill knotting the set 22-22 followed by Dabin combining with Ciarra Wainwright on a tandem block to make it 23-22. A pair of Menehune miscues, including a net violation for the final point, gave the match to Kapa‘a.
Kills from Rita and Victorino put Waimea up early in the fourth set before the match deadlocked on a Menehune net violation, 2-2.
Fiare Moe, the Menehune setter, broke that stalemate by serving up a string of eight points before Morita broke the string, 11-3. In that series, Victorino tallied two blocks, one a tandem with Moura. Moura, Rita and Jacinto each had a kill before the Warriors interrupted the string.
Rita pulled Waimea further ahead with a string of four unanswered points on Warrior hitting errors before Jacinto put away the game on a kill, 25-15, for the 2-2 read on the night.
Errors governed the first four points in the final set before Victorino pulled Waimea ahead 4-1 on a kill. Jacinto added another and a Victorino-Moura block put the Menehune up 6-1 before Victorino took the server’s box for her six unanswered points.
Waimea’s victory brings its second round to 2-0 while Kapa‘a drops to 0-2. Kaua‘i, 1-0 after its win over Kapa‘a, Tuesday, heads to the Clem Gomes Gym on Tuesday to match up against the first-round winner. Kapa‘a hosts Island School with the JV games serving up at 5 p.m. followed by the varsity matches to start no earlier than 6:30 p.m.
