Warrior Girls Sweep Lady Lunas in Volleyball

KS-Maui outside-hitter Anuhea Kaiaokamalie finished with eight kills. Photo by Rodney S. Yap.

By Rodney S. Yap

The Kamehameha Schools Maui girls volleyball team is always preparing for that next obstacle.

On Tuesday, the Warriors handled their business at home, sweeping visiting Lahainaluna, 25-9, 25-10, 25-14, with a strong ball-controlled offense that dictated the tempo and momentum of the match.

The win improved KS-Maui’s record to 12-2-1 overall and 5-0 in Maui Interscholastic League play, while the winless Lady Lunas dropped to 0-3 in the MIL.

KS-Maui head coach Charles “Bala” Spencer talks to his team during a time out Tuesday. Photo by Rodney S. Yap.

Kamehameha Maui built at 13-7 lead over Lahainaluna in the first game, before junior libero/defensive specialist Taylor Awai served the next eight points as the Warriors made quick work of the Lunas in game one.

The Warriors senior setter Bobbi-lin Kalama had five service aces to open game two and Kamehameha jumped out to an 11-0 lead. Sienna Davis’ kill gave KS-Maui a commanding 16-2 advantage before Kalama set outside-hitter Anuhea Kaiaokamalie to close out game two.

Reserve setter Kailee Tabaco opened game three with more solid serving and her nine assists helped the Warriors build a 12-4 lead. Even Warrior freshman Danielle Brown contributed a kill to pad Kamehameha’s lead in game three to 16-6.

KS-Maui reserve setter Kailee Tabaco. Photo by Rodney S. Yap.

In the end, senior middle-blocker Leimana Kane finished with a game-high 11 kills, while Davis added nine and Kaiaokamalie had eight. Kalama added six aces and 19 assists, while Awai finished with nine digs and Emma Yen had four.

“We tried to take every free ball that we got and tried to attack off those free balls and I think we did a pretty good job,” said KS-Maui head coach Clarence “Bala” Spencer. “We hit about 60 to 75%, which is pretty good.”

Kaiaokamalie leads the team with 49 kills on the season, while Kalama tops the team with 22 aces.

“We’ve been trying to work on our middle attack and Leimana had a really good match and Anuhea played well on the outside. We always tell our outside hitters that they have a license to kill, so go for the ball and get after it and she had a really good match tonight.”

“We really right where we thought we would be at this time,” Spencer added. “We’re getting some girls some playing time, we’re doing things that we’ve been wanting to do all season long. We’re not firing on all cylinders yet, but we’re pretty darn close.”

KS-Maui middle-blocker Leimana Kane (19) finished with a game-high 11 kills. Lahainaluna’s Dwayna Kalilikane (28) and Jessica Wallace (10) defends. Photo by Rodney S. Yap.

With a month still to play in the MIL schedule, Spencer said the team is planning a trip to California, Sept. 28-29, to play in the 2012 Varsity Cougar Classic.

“We have about five days during fall break,” Spencer explained. “Usually there are no games during the fair break, so there is a tournament at Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo. A 24-team tournament. It’s a pretty big tournament with some pretty good teams so we are kind of getting geared up for that and hopefully that will help us to finish the season very strong and help us get ready for states.

“We working on some things because we know we are not the biggest team in the world, so we working on those things now, getting ready for that tourney, and getting ready to finish the season strong. And we know that’s what we are going to see at state, big teams, tall teams. We might be a big team in the MIL, but we are very average looking in comparison to the other teams at state.”

In junior varsity action, Kamehameha Maui defeated Lahainaluna, 21-14, 21-10, 16-14.