Hawaii Baptist earns sweep of Iolani on 'Spike Night'


Hawaii Baptist's Michael Fisher slams down one of his 11 kills against Iolani. Greg Yamamoto | SL

On Hawaii Baptist's annual 'Spike Night,' it was the Eagles' serve that stole the show.

Fueled by eight aces at the service line, two-time defending Division II state champion Hawaii Baptist swept past Iolani in the best-of-three format, 25-20, 25-22, in front of a pumped-up crowd of approximately 700 at Dan Liu Gymnasium.

Despite the straight set victory, the Division II Eagles certainly got all they could handle from their Division I counterpart.

"They run a different offense then we are used to, that swing offense, so it was good to just see different style and be able to adjust on the fly."

Iolani kept pace with Hawaii Baptist for much of the first set, one that featured 11 ties and 12 lead changes. But miscues at the service line by the Raiders were costly, and the fifth error on serve pushed the lead to 21-19, forcing a Raiders' timeout.

The Eagles would seize the opprtunity coming out of the timeout, as Michael Fisher elevated to stuff an Iolani kill attempt to push the lead to 3, then slammed down a set from sophomore setter BJ Hosaka to extend Hawaii Baptist to a 23-19 edge.

Fisher would get the call down the stretch in the opening set, notching the final two Eagles' kills to close things out at 25-20.

"He's a leader on and off the court, and he's a go-to guy." said Hosaka of Fisher. "You can just put it up there and he'll put it down. He's huge for us."

Hawaii Baptist took control early in set number two, forcing Iolani to call a timeout at 8-4 following a Micah Aweau block, and again at 20-13 following a pair of Fisher aces.

"We just try to serve tough, try to keep the balls in." said Fisher. "The more we limit our service errors the better we play, and better the chance we have at winning."

But despite trailing almost the entire second set, Iolani had no intentions of going away without a fight, and showed great resolve late, rallying from a 22-15 deficit.

Skyy Passi's back-to-back kills started the momentum swinging the Raiders' way, and a hitting error on the next point by the Eagles forced the home team to burn a timeout. The rally continued however, as another hitting error followed by a Preston Kamada kill capped off a 5-0 scoring spurt by Iolani, and trimmed the lead to 22-20.

The Raiders would not get any closer, however, and on match point, Iolani failed to get the ball across to give the second set to the Eagles, 25-22.

Fisher led the Eagles with 11 kills, 2 blocks, 3 digs and 2 aces, and Aweau added 8 kills, 2 blocks and 2 digs.

Hosaka, who was instrumental in getting the Hawaii Baptist offense on track, assisted on 22 kills and also added an ace.

"I wanted to establish the middle and after that push it out to Mike (Fisher) so that they wouldn't just load (up) on him." said Hosaka.

Iolani's Micah Goshi slammed down 10 kills and Alden Wong added 8 kills and 2 aces. Setter Kyle Kekina was solid as well, notching 3 kills and 5 digs to go along with 18 assists.

Both teams appreciated both the experience and the competition the Spike Night exhibition provided.

"It teaches us a lot about ourselves, and what we need to work on." said Obrey. "And without exhibition matches like this, we wouldn't be able to grow."

"We play Punahou (on Saturday), very similar type team as far as they have the one heavy arm, so it put us in a good position preparation-wise." said Iolani head coach Carl Rallita. "We have a bunch of sophomores so just getting them reps right now (was key)."



Reach Brien Ing at [email protected].