Girls Volleyball
Le Jardin stuns top-seed Konawaena in four


Kassidy Naone had a match-high 26 kills, including match point, and Le Jardin stunned top-seeded and two-time defending champion Konawaena, 17-25, 25-17, 25-21, 25-20, Thursday night in a quarterfinal of the New City Nissan Division II state girls volleyball tournament at Kaimuki High's gym.

The Bulldogs (10-5) will play Oahu Interscholastic Association champion and fourth-seeded Farrington in a semifinal, 5 p.m. Friday at Kaimuki.

Not a bad start for Le Jardin, runner-up in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II, which is making its state debut a memorable.

"It's amazing," said Naone, who also had 14 digs. "It just shows how hard we've been working all season. It's the first time Le Jardin has even made it to states."

"We're excited about it," Le Jardin coach Lee Lamb said, "but as I've been telling the girls all along: one at a time.  It doesn't matter who it is, we just want to focus on that opponent, try not to get ahead of ourselves."

Chanelle Molina led Konawaena with 25 kills and 25 digs, but they weren't enough against the Bulldogs' strong passing and setting by Nina Krupa (38 assists).

"Our passing was good," Naone said. "Our setter did a good job of distributing the ball."

It appeared that the Wildcats (13-1) were no their way, taking the first set easily.  Le Jardin led only once at 5-4, before the Wildcats used six mini-runs and never letting the Bulldogs come within three points.

The second set was dominated by Le Jardin, which used a 7-1 run to open a 9-3 lead and never let the Wildcats come within five. Leading 22-17, the Bulldogs finished off the Wildcats with three successive points the set-winner coming on Krupa's ace to even the match at 1.

The third set was tight until Le Jardin used a 3-0 run to take an 18-14 lead, only to see the Wildcats pull off five consecutive points, four with McKenna Ventura serving, to take a 19-18 lead. But kill for side out by Julia Fisher led to a 5-0 run with her serving.

Konawaena pulled to 24-21 on successive hitting errors by Le Jardin, but Arianna Lunow-Luke's block of a Molina attack ended the set.

The fourth set was tied five times, the last time at 20. Le Jardin then ran off five straight, which included three kills by Naone.

"At some point, we stopped playing our game," Konawaena coach Ainsley Keawekane said. "Both teams have a lot of heart and our team knows the team that makes the least mistakes is the one that will win. Le Jardin made the least mistakes."

What makes Le Jardin's feat more meaningful is it started the season with just seven players. It was able to bring some players up from the JV for the the ILH second round, but lack of depth made the starters versatile. For example, the 6-foot Fisher, a sophomore right side, held her own in the back row with 11 digs.

"We had a unique situation when we had only seven going into the first round," Lamb said. "So she kind of benefitted from not having any else to come in behind her, so she was forced to play defense. That was true for the other girls; they benefitted from having just seven."

For Konawaena, its competitiveness might have got the best of it.

"For the most part, I think we were playing on emotion instead of playing to love the game, they were playing to win the game. Two different things."



Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].




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