HILO – Waiakea outside hitter Ty Nishimura stood out among the pile of errors in a volleyball match that also featured equal parts entertainment and momentum swings.
The Warriors minimized their mistakes down the stretch just enough, and outlasted Hilo 25-20, 20-25, 17-25, 25-22, 15-8 in a BIIF showdown on Tuesday night.
The win helped Waiakea (8-1) jump ahead of Hilo (7-2) in second place in the Division I standings.
Nishimura, a 6-foot-2 junior, blasted five of his 20 kills in the last set at the Vikings Gym, where unforced errors (hitting, serving, ball-handling) were part of the excitement.
In a stat that put everything in a nutshell, the Warriors had 102 points and 50 unforced errors. That’s 49 percent or nearly an error for every two plays.
The Vikings were worse. They had 100 points and 52 unforced errors. They were giving away points like Halloween candy.
In the third set, there were 12 straight unforced errors by both teams. That might be a BIIF volleyball record for the crosstown rivals.
The Viks had more service errors than the Warriors, 17-13, often airmailing balls five feet past the back line.
But all those miscues took a backseat to Waiakea’s cleaner play in Game 5 and production from Nishimura and Kolbi Aiona, a lanky sophomore middle blocker.
Aiona rammed a ball down from the right side for a 5-5 tie. Then he served an ace. On the next play, a ball dropped between two Viks for a mental error and another giveaway point.
It was suddenly a 7-5 Waiakea lead. Nishimura followed with a back-row kill, and Aiona served three more points.
Then on match point, Marcus Kenui ripped a bullet from the service line, Hilo fumbled the ball, and hit the antennae.
All those Viking mistakes overshadowed the overpowering effort by senior outside hitter Bradley Comilla, who knocked down 25 kills.
Justice Lord added 10 kills, and Maikah Tandal took time off from setting to become a needed hitting option and had four kills.
Waiakea’s ball-control was pretty solid, and junior setter Kaniela Alviar was able to feed different hitters to keep Hilo’s block off-balanced.
Aiona got a few quick, line-drive sets and hammered seven kills, and Keahi Denne-Kimi, the other outside hitter, also had seven kills.
But in that final set, Hilo had more unforced errors than Waiakea, 5-3, and couldn’t stop Nishimura or its bad habit of giving away points.