Monday Morning MIL: Baldwin girls volleyball chasing unprecedented state championship

The Baldwin High School girls volleyball team has grown up together and now the Bears are nearing the end of a journey that could end in unprecedented territory: a Division I state title, something no Maui Interscholastic League volleyball team, boys or girls, has ever accomplished.

On Tuesday night, the Bears celebrated eight seniors, some of whom have played together since the third grade through the Hawaiian Style Volleyball Club run by Baldwin head coach Al Paschoal. Baldwin clinched a state berth with its 25-7, 25-9, 25-6 win over Lahainaluna on senior night at Jon Garcia Gym.

The Bears are currently 11-0 in the MIL, ranked fourth in the state by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. They’ve swept all of their matches in MIL play.

Paschoal, who has coached many players to NCAA Division I volleyball, is not shy about stating the mission. He said this team could become the best the MIL has ever seen “when we hoist the koa head (state championship trophy), the big one.”

“That’s always what we slap on the board and, again, it is the goal now,” Paschoal said. “So, we want to win the koa head and that’s what it’s all about. I think we’re sitting pretty damn good right now, but we still have work to do.”

The Bears have one more MIL regular-season match, against Kamehameha Maui on Tuesday, and then the MIL tournament at Lahainaluna Oct. 14-16.

The state tournament is Oct. 28 at regional sites and then Oct. 31-Nov. 2 on Oʻahu.

On a night filled with touching family moments, there was one that wasn’t seen by everyone in an overflow crowd that included several Baldwin opponents in the bleachers.

When Baldwin senior setter Lilinoe Paschoal spotted her 3 1/2-year-old niece Kalia-Lei Motooka-Paschoal walking towards her with flowers, she broke away from the well-wishing and lei-giving surrounding her after the match to greet the youngster with a large embrace.

“I saw her smiling at me and I just had to go give her a hug,” Lilinoe Paschoal said.

All eight of the Baldwin seniors all appear to have college volleyball futures, but Lilinoe Paschoal, a two-time MIL D-I Player of the Year who is headed to Chaminade University of Honolulu, was the final player to take her senior spike, a traditional final moment on the court for departing players.

Lilinoe’s mom Sheryl, a two-time NAIA national champion at BYU-Hawaiʻi, dad Al, and brother Pono were all involved in Lilinoe’s goodbye — Kalia’s dad Kaipo, Lilinoe’s other brother, sat it out due to a sore knee.

“That moment was everything — for the past four years they’ve been my lifeline for volleyball, on the court and off, my support system,” Lilinoe Paschoal said Thursday at Garcia Gym before catching the bus for a match at King Kekaulike. “So, just like having the main people in my life there for my special moment was amazing, it meant everything.”

There was another family on the court for Lilinoe Paschoal: the other seven Baldwin seniors.

The emotions included “a little bit of everything since we’ve been together so long — it’s scary, like scary thinking forward because we won’t be teammates in the future, but it’s also just to make the most of it,” Lilinoe Paschoal said.  

Twins Amanda Naipo and Ariana Naipo, Natronai Anana, Keirah Kusunoki, Kuʻuleimokihana Manaois, Imani-Maile Hargis and Shylah Pulu-Valdez all have a vision of the mission. The Bears were a state final four team last season and have not been challenged in the MIL this year.

“The emotions are really high, we’ve been working so hard for the past four years, so our mentality is just to leave everything out on the court, work as much as we can in the gym so it shows outside of the gym,” Lilinoe Paschoal said. “Just keep on pushing so we can make that statement at states this year.”

It’s also a bittersweet time for her dad and coach.

“To see them just mature, through the sport, through life and turn into upstanding members of the community — being girls that I love like my daughter is something pretty special,” Al Paschoal said Tuesday. “To send them off is a pretty sad night. Glad to clinch, but sad to see them go. … I’m excited to see where this ride goes.”

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FOOTBALL: Lunas, Warriors clinch first-round division titles, Pine Lads claim first outright football crown in school history

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Kamehameha Maui beat King Kekaulike 30-12 on Friday night to clinch the first-round title in MIL Division II football, while Lahainaluna rolled to a 45-0 victory over Maui High on Saturday to clinch the MIL D-I first-round crown.

With the victories, the Warriors and Lunas each assured themselves at least a championship playoff game for a spot in the First Hawaiian Bank/HHSAA state tournaments that begin Nov. 15-16. MIL playoff games, if necessary, would be played Nov. 1 or Nov. 2.

Kahi Magno scored on a 29-yard blocked punt return and a 50-yard interception return and threw a two-point conversion pass for the Lunas; Joseph Arcangel scored on a 10-yard run, kicked three extra points and a 31-yard field goal; Kyle Thomas scored on 10- and 11-yard runs; and Moku Basques caught a 10-yard scoring pass from Ty Branco-Gomes.

For the Warriors, Zedekiah Campbell scored on 2-, 4- and 5-yard runs,  Kolten Waikiki-Caldeira threw a 25-yard touchdown pass for Aka Abihai-Phillips and Kayden Yap kicked a 29-yard field goal and three extra points. Cason Brooke threw a 36- and 24-yard touchdown passes to Kingston Holiday for Na Ali’i.

In the MIL eight-player ranks, the Lānaʻi Pine Lads improved to 5-0 with a 44-14 win over Hana in Lānaʻi City on Saturday to clinch the school’s first outright football title of any kind. Kahiku Mano had touchdown runs of 10 and 64 yards, Ryan Noble added a 1-yard scoring run and had scoring passes of 24 yards to Zarrick Manuel and 21 yards to Chase Connor. Colton Morimoto capped the scoring with a 3-yard run.

For the Dragons (1-4), Kaʻaha Kalanikau-Akuna scored on a 12-yard run and Uriah Mauliola caught a 21-yard scoring pass from Koalii Shamblin.

The Pine Lads finish their season Thursday at 5 p.m. against Kūlanihākoʻi at War Memorial Stadium.

*HJI’s “Monday Morning MIL” columns appear weekly on Monay mornings with updates on local sports in the Maui Interscholastic League and elsewhere around Maui County. Please send column ideas — anything having to do with sports in Maui County — as well as results and photos to rob@hjinow.org.