WAIMEA — The Waimea Menehune swept the Saturday night KIF volleyball series over Kaua‘i High School creating a three-way tie for the lead in the varsity girls’ Round One. Saulieann Wong got help from Mallorie Hepa, Fa‘afofoga Taala, and the
WAIMEA — The Waimea Menehune swept the Saturday night KIF volleyball series over Kaua‘i High School creating a three-way tie for the lead in the varsity girls’ Round One.
Saulieann Wong got help from Mallorie Hepa, Fa‘afofoga Taala, and the string of serves from Taira Kajiwara as the Menehune ladies took their contest in two games, 25-21, 25-19.
Kehau Silva and Tina Moger led the Red Raiders who charged into the lead of both games only to succumb to errors, the Menehune wahine controlling the tempo of the scoring by keeping the lead behind the hitting of Wong, Taala, and Hepa.
The Menehune win forces a playoff on Monday and Tuesday night for a winner of Round One.
A three-way coin toss with “odd man” out followed the contest with Waimea drawing the bye on Monday night.
Another coin toss determined that Kapa‘a would travel to Kaua‘i in a contest scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
The winner of the Monday night contest will host Waimea on Tuesday night starting at 7 p.m.
Playoff format will be best two-of-three with rally scoring to 25, and no caps.
Round two of the KIF volleyball season begins on Wednesday night, Oct. 8 which means that either Kapa‘a or Kaua‘i girls will be playing volleyball for three consecutive nights starting Monday, Oct. 6.
Earlier in the evening, the Waimea boys clinched the Round One title with their win over the Kaua‘i squad, 26-28, 25-23.
Jeremy McDown, eager to make up for the time he was unable to play, led the charge, again combining with Casey Kaohelaulii to keep the middle closed off.
Joshua Cabral got some help from McDown and John Karratti in the hitting department with Karratti leading the back row.
Kaua‘i was led by Futi Tavana and got some supplimental support from Kevin Downing, but the effort came up short on both games despite Downing pulling Kaua‘i to striking distance in game one, only to have the Red Raiders drop the contest on a position error.
Game two had Waimea in the lead from the start despite the point exchanges throughout the game.
Key hits by Cabral, Karratti, and Kaohelaulii combined with Red Raider errors to keep Waimea ahead as Kaohelaulii slammed one off a Tavana block attempt to seal the contest.
In the JV contests, Waimea split with Kaua‘i, taking the Boys contest, 25-16, 25-18, but dropping the girls outing 20-25, 24-25.