Kamehameha holds off Hawai'i Baptist

By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Kamehameha Schools girls volleyball team rallied past upstart Hawai'i Baptist 21-25, 25-21, 25-22 last night, but the Eagles again showed in defeat that they plan to make a run at the Interscholastic League of Honolulu championship.

Kamehameha, the 2003 state runner-up, improved to 10-1 in the ILH, while HBA fell to 9-2. The Eagles had already beaten Iolani and took defending state champ Punahou to three games before losing, 25-17, 23-25, 25-20.

"I had never seen them play before tonight, but they're real scrappy and real steady and very well-coached," Warriors coach Chris Blake said. "They don't make mistakes. We just tried to make adjustments and execute. But all the points we got tonight were earned."

Playing before a Senior Night crowd of about 600, Hawai'i Baptist calmly won the first game and led 17-15 in the second, before Kamehameha went on a 7-0 run to lead 22-17. The Eagles then could only get as close as 24-21.

"That helped our confidence," said Warriors sophomore Alexis Robins, who had a team-high 10 kills and one ace. "We just had to cut down on our errors, because they weren't making any errors. They were making us lose points ourselves. Then we adjusted to their serving better; we wanted to make them hit more shots."

A 5-0 run early in the third game gave Kamehameha a 10-5 lead, and the Warriors never trailed again. Hawai'i Baptist closed it to 14-13 on a kill by Kimberly Mow, but Kamehameha answered with four straight points to push it back to 18-13.

The Eagles made one final rally to close it to 24-22, but the Warriors ended it on a block by junior Tehane Kahalehau.

Freshman middle blocker Bekah Torres added nine kills for Kamehameha and Kahalehau contributed four blocks. Mow, a sophomore, led Hawai'i Baptist with 10 kills and senior Rayna Kitaguchi added three blocks.

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2456.