Damien outduels Seabury in five-set marathon

Greg Yamamoto | SL

Top-seeded Damien got all it could handle from fourth-seed Seabury Hall in a five-set thriller, 21-25, 26-24, 25-18, 25-15, 15-11 in the second semifinal of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Division II Girls Volleyball Championship at Kaimuki High School gymnasium.

A balanced offensive attack for the Monarchs helped overcome a 31 kill outing from the Spartans' Ella Connor, as Damien's Kaira Wengler and Tia-Marie Kekipi-Nuuanu notched 12 kills each and Heavenly Campbell added 11 more.

Seabury Hall had more total kills than Damien, 58 to 48, which included 11 kills from Sevilla Leuteneker.

The Spartans also outhit the Monarchs percentage-wise, .144 to .100, outblocked them 10 to 0, and recorded more assists by a 58 to 45 margin.

But Damien got the production when it needed it in the deciding fifth set, jumping out to a 7-1 advantage early with a Wengler ace and a pair of kills by Campbell.

The Monarchs withstood a furious rally in the midpoint of the set by the Spartans that trimmed the lead to 12-10, and down the final stretch benefitted from a service error followed by a Wengler kill to bring the match to set point.

Connor put down kill number 31 to keep Seabury's hopes alive at 14-11, but Del Kalulu-Sugai found Kekipi-Nuuanu for the match ender on the next point.

Kekipi-Nuuanu had 34 asissts in all to go along with 13 digs and an ace for Damien, while her counterpart Mercedes Winicki had a match high 52 assists and added five digs and an ace for Seabury.

Defensively, the two teams combined for 217 digs in the match. Connor had a match high 39, Kiiola Rivera 27, and Leuteneker 18 to pace Seabury, while Damien was led by Aiyani Park with 32 and Rayne Pactol with 21.

Damien will face off with Waimea in the Division II title game, set for Saturday, October 26 at 5 p.m. at the Neal S. Blaisdell Arena. The Menehunes swept University Lab in the first semifinal of the evening to set up the final pairing.