HHSAA Girls Volleyball
Iolani eases past KS-Maui in straight sets


  



Thu, Oct 26, 2017 @ Moanalua [ 5:00 pm ]


FINAL  1   2   3   4   5      
IOL (9-8) 25 25 25 - - 3
KSM (14-3) 14 10 11 - - 0

SALT LAKE — Saige Kaahaaina-Torres put down 21 kills and hit .366 to lead Iolani to a sweep of third-seeded Kamehameha-Maui in the quarterfinals of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Division I Girls Volleyball State Championships at Moanalua gym Thursday night.

The scores were 25-14, 25-10 and 25-11.

The Interscholastic League of Honolulu runner-up Raiders (8-7) moved one step closer to defending their state title with their fourth consecutive victory. They will face unseeded Kahuku — which upset No. 2 seed Moanalua in five sets — in a 5 p.m. semifinal Friday at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium.

The Warriors, champions of the Maui Interscholastic League, fell to 14-2 with the loss and will play Moanalua in a 6:30 p.m. consolation match Friday at the Menes' home gym.

Kaahaaina-Torres, the reigning All-Hawaii Player of the Year, took a match-high 41 swings and committed just six errors. She also had seven digs, three blocks and three service aces.

"I think in the end it came down to passing and how we pass is how we're going to execute the set, so I think with that it really helped," said Kaahaaina-Torres, who had nine kills and nine digs in Monday's first-round sweep of Waianae.

"Our passing was good, so it really helped (setter) Kristen (McDaniel) move the ball around and we were able to work around the block, so I think it all started from the pass."

McDaniel recorded 33 assists, while Grace Wee had 11 digs and Naya Dong 10.

It took the Raiders about half of the opening set to get rolling, but they seized command with an 11-5 run to close out game 1.

"I think we kind of just had to get settled in to what was happening around us," Kaahaaina-Torres said. "I mean, it's a different situation, especially with all these younger girls who haven't really experienced the feeling of what it is to play in another gym, so settling in took a little while, but I think once we did it was pretty good."

Game 2, however, was completed one sided. Iolani led wire to wire and hit .500 in the set, with just two errors against 14 kills on 24 attacks.

The Raiders had to rally from an early deficit in game 3.

Kimani Fernandez-Roy put down a pair of kills sandwiched around a solo block to give the Warriors a 5-2 lead. Later in the set, Logan Spencer's kill from the right side made it 11-8 in favor of KS-Maui.

However, the Raiders reeled off the next 17 points and closed out the match with Kaahaaina-Torres' kill off an assist from McDaniel.

"We kind of just lost track of what we were trying to accomplish and what we were trying to do, which is something that we've been struggling with, so I think that's something that we definitely need to work on, but I think when we came back into the huddle it was more of like ‘one point at a time if we want to get this done,' and ultimately that's what we want to do, so that's how we finished it," Kaahaaina-Torres said.

Kamehameha-Maui committed 21 hitting errors in the match.

"Traveling and seeing a team that we haven't seen before, I think it was a lot for them," Warriors' first-year coach Alex Akana said. "We came in here with maybe not the right mindset to play and just go out there and swing. We were a little timid, we were kind of scared, so that definitely attributed to all of those errors."

Talia Leauanae had six kills and eight kills to lead the Warriors, who hit negative .131 for the match.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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