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A young 'Iolani squad showed patience and poise in a grind-it-out, 25-18, 26-28, 25-21, season-opening win on the road over Maryknoll.

"We talked about being patient and understanding that because we're young and inexperienced we'd make mistakes, but not to hold on to those mistakes and just play each play." said 'Iolani head coach Mike Among.

The Raiders started off slowly, trailing well into the midpoint of the first set. They would rebound coming out a timeout at 14-11, rattling off 8 straight points to take a 22-11 lead, and carried that momentum through to a 25-18 win in the opening set.

Despite being down 1-0, an unfazed Maryknoll squad, proceeded to jump out early again in the second, leading by as many as five points, and held a 20-17 advantage late in set number two.

Spartans' juniors Nua Iuvale (8 kills, 3 blocks) and John Mayer (6 kills, 3 blocks) came up big on the front line to help fuel the second set run, as did outside hitter Gabriel Shimizu (6 kills).

"They (Maryknoll) are a very scrappy team, coach Shawn (Doo) has done a great job... I'm sure they're kind of in the same boat, where they've got some inexperience on that side. It's almost like looking in a mirror in a way." added Among.

Trailing by three with the second set coming to a close, 'Iolani senior Gabriel Vega seemed to take matters into his own hands, putting down three consecutive kills to pull the Raiders even at 20-20.

But Maryknoll would rally, coming back to tie the score on five different occasions, before senior Ian Moracco's kill at 27-26 gave the Spartans the win in set number two.

The third and decisive set three started off unlike the two prior, with the Raiders jumping out to an early 4-1 advantage before a Maryknoll rally levelled the score at 9-9.

'Iolani would respond, extending to a 14-11 lead on a Kyle Kekina ace, but Maryknoll would refuse to go away, pulling to within two points at 18-16 before the Raiders finally managed to create a bit of breathing room, going on a 5-0 scoring spurt to extend the margin to 23-16.

Yet another spurt by the Raiders would be capped off by Vega recording his match-high 19th kill of the evening to give 'Iolani a 24-18 lead, but Maryknoll would have one last rally left, pulling to within 24-21 on a double block by Austin Gaskins and Shane Haggerty.

Of note was the performance of 'Iolani junior Micah Goshi, who put down 12 kills on the night to go along with 5 aces.

"Goshi, he's kind of the silent one...if you don't pay attention to him or if you pay a lot of attention to Gabo (Gabriel Vega) he's going to hurt you." said Among.

He added, "He (Goshi) started to get tentative towards the middle of the match... so we told him to start swinging away, and towards the end there he started to, and got us a couple of key kills."

Next up for 'Iolani is an encounter with ILH nemesis Punahou, in a 1:30 p.m. afternoon affair at the Lower Gym in the Father Bray Athletic Complex on the 'Iolani campus.