Kamehameha sweeps Moanalua to reach D1 title

Kamehameha's Tiyana Hallums goes up for a single attempt against Moanalua. Peter Caldwell | SL

KE'EAU — Top-seeded team defeated Moanalua in three sets, 25-18, 25-22, and 25-19, in a semifinal match of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Girls Volleyball Championships. Kamehameha advances on to the final bracket for the New City Nissan HHSAA Division I girls volleyball championship title final tomorrow at Kamehameha-Hawaii campus.

Kamehameha setter Faith Maafala helped the Warriors take the win by assisting her teammates Tiyana Hallums, Kealani Browne, and Peyton Spragling who had 11, 8, and 7 kills respectively. Maafala recorded a total of 24 assists.

Concentration and focus was what drove Maafala tonight as she made 24 serves tonight for her team. A grunt could be heard during the wind-ups of Maafala's serves — especially serves that were aces.

"I've actually had that grunt ever since my freshman year," Maafala explained.

"I don't know what it is, but it just gives me that extra 'omph' that I need to just get that ball over a lot more quicker and powerful."

Maafala served a game-high 4 aces against Moanalua, including 2 consecutive service aces during the beginning of set three.

"She's been with our team for four years, she comes in, brings a lot of energy." Kamehameha head coach Chris Blake said of Maafala. "She's a great server, she does a lot of little things that people don't see in terms of success she helps our team to continue to be successful as a (team)."

Kamehameha dispatched Moanalua quickly in the first set, benefitting from Moanalua hitting and serving errors.

Throughout the game, Kamehameha did not call a timeout in any of the three sets, even when faced with a 0-5 deficit at the beginning of the second set.

"We want our girls to be able to fight through adversity," explained Kamehameha head coach Chris Blake. "We make a lot of adjustments on the fly and (we) figure out a way for the girls to do that."

"So when a situation comes up, they can do those switches on their own too."

The Warriors closed the gap to 11-11 and battled with Na Menehune back-and-forth, tying the score multiple times up to the 20-all mark, when a Takeda service ace and a Hallums kill forced Moanalua's second timeout in set two.

In the third set, Kamehameha responded to Moanalua's first strike with a 6-0 run and scored about two points per one point scored by Na Menehune to steadily stay in the lead. Moanalua called one timeout after committing two errors at 18-12. Despite a 7-3 comeback the Na Menehune committed more errors to give the Warriors the final set.

"We just had to stay consistent and do the things that that we needed to do and that we were able to pull away with that match," said Blake.