La Pietra one victory shy of its best finish in ILH

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Senior Nanea Holmes has been a constant at La Pietra, which has had many coaching changes during her high school career. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

At 8-2, the all-girls school with no nickname needs a victory against Hanalani today (4:30 p.m. at St. Andrew's Priory gym) to finish in third place. Its only losses were to first-place Iolani and second-place Punahou.

One reason for La Pietra's success is the play of senior outside hitter/setter Nanea Holmes. This is her fourth season on the varsity.

"Her all-around (skill) is up there with the best of them," first-year coach Alika Williams said. "She's setting this year, which is great. The ultimate place I'd put her is outside hitter. But we don't have the depth. She has to set."

Throughout Holmes' career, La Pietra has seen coaching changes almost every season. But when she heard that Williams was going to coach, she was elated.

"We have a strong coaching staff," she said. "I was real excited about that. I knew it would be good, but I never thought it would be this good."

But the team's success isn't a total surprise to her.

"We have good coaching, good girls," said Holmes, 17. "The whole combination just works really, really good. We've come so far already. We can only go farther."

As for going further, Holmes will take her game to the next level. She has verbally committed to play at Alabama, where she would like to study pediatrics. She also was being considered by Pepperdine, UCLA, UC-Santa Barbara, George Mason, Nebraska and Ohio State.

"I wanted to go some place totally different," said Holmes.

As with a number of smaller ILH schools, La Pietra includes participants from other small ILH schools. Of the 12 players, three come from outside La Pietra.

Middle blockers Alicia Arnott and Chandra Shih and outside hitter Ali Rigg attend La Pietra, but outside hitter Kanoe Cathcart and setter Liesel Santimer go to Waldorf and ASSETS, respectively, which could present a problem if La Pietra earns one of the ILH's two state tournament berths. According to Hawai'i High School Athletic Association rules, state tournament teams must be composed of players from one school.

"We'll deal with that situation when it presents itself," Williams said. "This program right now is about baby steps: one thing at a time."

The girls' regular season ends today. Matches are set for Thursday to break any ties after the regular season. Playoffs between the 5th- through 12th-place teams start Saturday.

Western front: In a match that might determine the O'ahu Interscholastic Association Western Division title, Pearl City (6-0) will play Mililani (7-0) in boys volleyball at 7 tonight at the Trojans' gym. They are the only unbeaten boys teams in the OIA.