Iolani defeats Punahou for state volleyball title

By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Iolani School athletic department, which for generations has subscribed to its "One Team" mantra, now has one state girls volleyball championship.

St. Joseph's Lindsey Lee tries to hit through the block of Iolani's La'akea Campbell in a semifinal match. Campbell had 15 kills to lead the Raiders to a 16-14, 15-9 victory. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

The victory completes a perfect 20-0 season for Iolani.

"This is awesome, unreal, hard to believe," said coach Ann Kang, who started the Raiders' program in 1979 at the intermediate level and has been the school's only varsity coach. "We walked through the gym this afternoon and looked at all the other (sports') banners. We saw an empty spot in the corner and said, 'That would be a nice spot for ours.'"

To earn the right to hang it, Iolani rallied from a 7-2 deficit in the third game and scored the final five points of the match.

Junior setter/outside hitter Kanoe Kamana'o served and set during those final points, and senior co-captain Ashley Elliazar notched two kills during the run, including the final point off a Buffanblu block.

"I thought our blocking got a lot better," Elliazar said of that final stretch. "We weren't letting anything get past us. And Kanoe just did a great job back there."

Kamanao, a first-team all-state selection last year, finished with a match-high 14 kills and three aces, in addition to six digs and two blocks.

But Kang said Kamanao's strongest contribution did not show up on the stat sheet.

"Kanoe has been involved with other volleyball championships, and she doesn't want to lose," Kang said. "She will find a way to make things happen, and she does an excellent job of holding things together and making the other players trust in themselves."

The Raiders' confidence certainly was put to the test, especially after Punahou blitzed through them in the first game.

The Buffanblu's Michelle Look and Puna Richardson looked unstoppable at the net, helping Punahou hit .289 for the game.

"They came out really strong," Kamana'o said. "But we just had to play our game, and nothing else."

Kang said as well as the Buffanblu played in that first game, Iolani lapses also contributed to the lopsided score.

"Volleyball can be a roller coaster game, and sometimes you just have to weather the storm," Kang said. "Of course, that first game was like a hurricane for us. But it wasn't all Punahou. We made some errors, and we just had to focus on fixing those."

The Raiders did enough fixing to win the second game, although the Buffanblu made them earn every single point. The game was tied at 11-11 before Iolani scored four of the final five points to win it. Kamana'o had two kills and an ace during the run.

Punahou jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the third game, but the Raiders rallied behind Kamana'o's serving and setting. The game then went back and forth, with four ties until Iolani took the lead for good at 12-11 on a kill by Rae Woolford.

"They were just one pinch scrappier than us, just one ball dropped or one block not closed," said Look, who finished with 13 kills and five blocks to lead the Buffanblu. "It was like that all year between us, they just edged us out. But I'm proud of our team; we tried our hardest."

In the end, Elliazar said, it came back to that old familiar phrase.

"We had almost our whole senior class here, everyone from the school," she said. "After we lost the first game, we said, 'We're 18 strong, we can do this.' We just kept playing together, and we played as one team."

Semifinals

Punahou defeated Hilo, 15-6, 15-6

Iolani defeated St. Joseph 16-14, 15-8.

Third-place

St. Joseph defeated Hilo, 15-11, 15-12.