Something special may be brewing with the Hilo volleyball team, which played clean ball and with the type of teamwork that can overpower experienced opponents, sometimes better ones, too.
Behind smooth ball-handling from passes to sets, youthful Hilo fell into a good-hitting groove and swept Konawaena in a BIIF showdown 25-13, 27-25, 25-11 on Monday night at the Vikings gym.
The Division II Wildcats (1-2) didn’t have senior setter Celena Molina, who injured her ankle at practice and also missed Saturday’s four-set loss against Kamehameha.
However, what really hurt Konawaena was inaccurate hitting. The two-time BIIF defending champions fell into a hitting slump it couldn’t shake.
The Division I Vikings (2-1) welcomed the free points and played energized with the home fans providing an inspirational boost with loud cheers during the long and entertaining back-and-forth rallies.
“It was exciting, and the fans pumped us up,” Hilo junior Kawai Ua said. “Overall, I liked our teamwork. All of us worked together. We focused on one pass at a time, one point at a time.”
Hilo had only a handful more kills than Kona, 36-30. But the Wildcats committed far more unforced errors (hitting, serving, ball-handling), 35-15.
Most coaches wants their teams to commit at the most five unforced errors or 1/5 the set total and make the opposition earn the rest. Hilo hit that target on the nose while Konawaena went way overboard.
It was Hilo sophomore middle blocker Laurie McGrath’s breakout match. She had seven kills, including one from the back row, and served bullets. When she rips her serves, it’s right at a serve-receiver’s chest; if the passer doesn’t move her feet, she gets handcuffed.
“She played really well,” Hilo coach Drew Fernandez said. “We finally got to see her hitting like she’s capable of. She’s so young and she got in a groove.”
The other youngsters also shined.
Mahala Kaapuni, a freshman middle, had four kills and right-side hitter Taina Leao, a sophomore southpaw, had five kills. Kaapuni, Leao, and McGrath formed a nice roofing company with their length and mobility.
Ua led the offensive charge with nine kills and her junior outside hitting partner Alexus Paglinawan added six kills. When she wasn’t setting, Kailee Kurokawa knocked down four kills from assists by Makena Ahuna or Saydee Fujioka, the only senior.
Kona junior Cherilyn Molina slammed 12 kills, including eight in the second set, to spark the offense. Mahi Kaawa added six kills while McKayla Ventura and Kenna Alapai had four kills each. Kaawa and Alapai took turns setting and swinging from the right post.
Hilo fell into a good groove and never lost a beat when starters rotated out of their favorite spots or backups entered the lineup.
In the first set, Hilo served bullets and recorded three aces and played cleaner ball than the Wildcats, who had more unforced errors, 11-6, and had zero aces.
Ua was a force with five kills, showing her wide range of shots, and Kurokawa moved the ball around. Kurokawa and Leao had two kills each from the right post.
In the second set, Konawaena looked comfortable with a 21-16 lead but committed four unforced errors, including three straight. And suddenly, Hilo was in the rear-view mirror, behind just 22-20.
Leao knocked down a kill for a 26-25 lead, and McGrath and Kurokawa combined on a block for game point to survive Molina’s onslaught of kills, including three from the back row.
Molina isn’t as tall as her oldest sister Chanelle Molina, a 5-foot-7 freshman at Washington State, but she has a nice vertical and timing and hits at the top of her arm swing.
The Wildcats have their own impressive 5-10 freshman in middle Anastasia Tuifua, who had two kills and two blocks. Like the Molina sisters, she’s also a basketball player.
In the third set, Konawaena had a whopping 14 unforced errors. Hilo played super clean ball, even with the backups in, and gave away just three free points.
“I tell the bench, ‘If I sub you in, you have to pick up the energy,’ The starters could be tired and they did that,” Fernandez said. “Our main goal is to play everybody, and we did that tonight.”
In the junior varsity, Hilo defeated Kona 25-10, 25-16