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Michael Lasquero | ScoringLiveApril 14, 2019, 12:04am
Sat, Apr 13, 2019 @ Kamehameha [ 11:00 am ]
KAPALAMA HEIGHTS — Order has been restored.
Top-ranked Punahou clinched a state berth and the ILH Division I first-round title with a 25-22, 17-25, 25-17, 25-17 win over No. 2 Kamehameha in a playoff match at Kekuhaupio Gymnasium Saturday morning.
Jack Deuchar had 14 kills, Kawai Hong 13 and Robbie Allen added 11 kills and had a hand in seven of the team's 11 total blocks to power the Buffanblu (10-1). Jakob Kimura and Claudio Clini each had seven kills and setters Conner McInerny and Keegan Au Yuen had 24 and 23 assists respectively to round out the Punahou offense.
The two teams last played each other on Wednesday, but played two more matches since then with California teams Corona Del Mar and Huntington Beach in town for the annual Clash of the Titans Invitational.
The Warriors (9-2) elected to rest their starters Friday night while the Buffanblu went all out to grind out a 25-22, 25-16, 31-29 sweep of nationally-ranked Corona Del Mar.
Hong said getting the win the night before gave the Buffanblu momentum against the Warriors (9-2), who handed Punahou its first loss to a Hawaii team since 2016 earlier in the week.
"That really energized us and helped us to focus today," said Hong. "We were a little a hesitant on playing everyone because we wanted to make sure we were healthy in this match, but in the end our support from our team and that win last night really helped us regained our confidence."
Punahou proved it on the court.
Unlike their previous meeting, the Buffanblu pulled away in the opening set for a 25-22 win in game one. Punahou also read Kamehameha's attack well and frustrated the Warriors' hitters with a solid block throughout the entire match. By the end of it, many of Kamehameha's attack attempts went out of bounds trying to avoid the block.
"The three sets that we didn't win, we started to play outside of our system," said Kamehameha coach Randy Nako. "Defensively, offensively, I think the kids were trying to do too much and that kind of hurt us because when you play outside of the system, it's some things that you didn't practice. That's kind of where we failed, I think, without looking at the film."
Punahou coach Rick Tune said that his team was successful on Saturday not because of scouting and strategy, but because his players focused on what they could control.
"Quite honestly we just wanted to play ball," said Tune. "We didn't really talk about (Kamehameha) a whole lot. The biggest thing was we wanted to pay our attention to our side of the net, the energy on our side of the net, the camaraderie and togetherness on our side of the net."
Punahou arguably dominated throughout the entire contest. In the set that they did lose, the Buffanblu had seven hitting errors and six service errors, including five consecutive serves into the net to start the period.
But the Buffanblu stayed the course and came right back to pull out convincing wins in the final two sets to seal the deal.
"I was really proud of the way that we responded in set three after having a lot of self-inflicted mistakes in set two," said Tune. "We didn't start pointing fingers, we didn't start getting angry or frustrated. We just said let's reset, let's play ball. That's what they did."
Christmas Togiai led the Warriors in the loss with a match-high 20 kills.
Both teams now shift their attention to the league's second round, which uses a double-elimination format. On Monday Kamehameha will host Iolani at 5:00 p.m. while Punahou hosts Hawaii Baptist at 6:15 p.m.
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