Waianae outlasts Nanakuli for third straight win

The Waianae girls volleyball team celebrates after defeating the host Golden Hawks in three sets. CJ Caraang | SL

NANAKULI — Waianae held off a late Nanakuli push to down the host Golden Hawks in three sets at Hugh Taufaasau Court Tuesday night.

The Seariders won by set scores of 25-18, 18-25 and 15-13 to improve to 3-1 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Western Division standings. Nanakuli dropped to 1-4.

"I knew it was going to be close, they're a really good team," said Waianae coach Wilhelm Wagner.

Kamila Marinas had eight kills and Jasmine Fonoti, Hokulani Irvine-Pule and Tayzia Pakele each had four kills to lead the Waianae attack. Fonoti and Irvine-Pule also combined on two blocks to help on the front lines. Enee Tiolu, Tihani Evangelista and Skyler Aiwohi also had a kill for the Seariders.

Freshman libero Chevelle Wagner-Chun had a team-high 17 digs to lead the back row. Junior setter Jorene Ulu handled most of the setting duties with Acazia Tolentino sidelined with sickness and finished with 23 assists.

The Seariders hit the Golden Hawks with power early on, only to use off-speed tips later on for smarter points. Most of Marinas' kills came on tips that went over the Nanakuli block, which included the match-winning point.

"Everybody knows we hit, so once we start hitting, the defense spreads out," said Wagner. "That's always an option for us, we just need to take more advantage of that."

It was the Seariders' third straight win since dropping their season-opener to Leilehua, 20-25, 26-27. They will have their biggest test of their season when they take on defending OIA West champ Mililani (5-0) on the road Thursday night.

"I told them the last night after practice ‘this is where the season starts for us actually,'" said Wagner. "The loss to Leilehua was a rough one, but with the wins along the way and the teams ahead of us, that's pretty much the tough teams we have to face to prove ourselves and to see where we stand."

For the Golden Hawks, the season has been filled with a few growing pains, having just two seniors with varsity experience. The youth was evident in the first set when they committed 11 hitting and two service errors.

"I think the problem was we didn't bring the energy that I expect out of our team, especially with this being a rivalry between Waianae and Nanakuli," said Nanakuli coach Junius Wong. "I feel like it kind of just stayed stagnant, therefore our crowd didn't really get into it. I think that kind of hurts us because we don't play well with bad emotions, or no emotion at all."

It didn't help that sophomore libero Jeanie Paisis (match-high 20 digs) had to leave the match in the second set after a collision to her head. Still, the Golden Hawks rallied in her absence and was able to force a third game.

Nanakuli trailed 6-2 in the third set, but stormed back to take lead late, 12-11. However, the Golden Hawks ran out of gas down the stretch and came up short, 15-13.

"I told them they have to play for each other and play as a team," said Wong. "When our libero went down, that was the time to regroup and get refocused and we made a big push. It didn't turn out in our favor but I thought it was a good effort at the end whereas In past games against Waianae during scrimmages we would just falter and just fall flat."

Senior outside hitter Haley Thomas had a match-high 12 kills and two blocks to lead the Golden Hawks. Janae Odom added six kills and Arielle Tafeaga chipped in four more to round out the Nanakuli kill leaders.

Reach Michael Lasquero at [email protected].