The Warriors of Kamehameha are not very tall, but they put a big emphasis on first-touch ball-control — serving and passing. The Warriors of Waiakea soar high and hit hard, fitting for a volleyball team built around athleticism.
In an early showdown of title contenders, Kamehameha played cleaner ball and swept Waiakea 25-17, 26-24, 26-24 in a Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division I match Saturday at Koaia Gym.
In Waimea, BIIF Division II runner-up Hawaii Preparatory Academy swept defending champion and new-look Pahoa, which lost all its starters from a year ago, 25-22, 25-18, 25-18.
The theme of the season is already set: Everyone is chasing Division I favorite Kamehameha and Division II heavyweight HPA.
Waiakea is the defending Division I champ and has won in the odd-numbered years: 2009, ’11 and ’13. Kamehameha won the title in 2008, ’10 and ’12.
The early showdown marked the first time all four Enriques brothers shared Kamehameha’s court: senior Evan, junior Emmett and twin freshmen Addie and Avery, under their coach and father Guy Enriques.
“I liked our composure for being such a young team,” Guy Enriques said. “A couple of times Waiakea’s serve-receive errors helped us stay on offense. I was really happy with our kids serving. They served tough and hit their targets. That was our edge.”
Serving tough is wonderful. Having Evan Enriques lighting it up is even better. Big brother stole the show with a double-double effort: 17 kills and 17 digs with a .310 hitting clip.
Emmett was next with seven kills while Isaiah Laeha had six kills for the Warriors, who hit .182. Emmett racked up 16 digs, junior libero Kekaulike Alameda added 10 digs, and Addie had seven digs.
Evan, the two-time BIIF Division I player of the year, pounded balls all over the place, displaying his off-the-block tool, tip, roll, line and cross-court shots. He’s got an effective cut shot, which slices inside the block.
Addie and Avery are both about 5 feet 6. They’re interchangeable as setters in a 6-2 lineup, one subbing for the other to keep their lack of height out of the front row.
“It feels different because I only played with my friends before,” Avery said. “But it feels better. There was more intensity.”
“Evan is the best ball-handler,” Addie added. “He’s more experienced. Hopefully, we can focus more and Emmett, Avery and me will step up and give 110 percent.”
“It feels good and we have a better connection,” Emmett said. “It’s our first game, but we should expect to do more.”
In November, Evan signed to play for Stanford as a libero, but in his heart, he’ll always be an outside hitter — small at 6 feet 2 for college, but big-time in the BIIF and at states.
In one of the key matchups, Evan neutralized Waiakea senior Kama Paio’s bullet serves. The senior transfer from HPA, who plays on Waiakea coach Ecko Osorio’s Pilipaa club team, is 6 feet 4 and puts tremendous velocity and sinking spin on the ball.
However, Paio had only one good serving run in Game 2, for three straight points, including an ace to tie it 18-18.
Mamane Namahoe knocked down 11 kills, Dillon Rellez, who shared setting duties with Keanu Esser, had 10 kills while Paio had nine kills for Waiakea, which hit .172. Ohlen Sugihara picked up 10 digs while Rellez and Paio had six digs each.
Paio is a unique weapon, offering length at the block, a bazooka serve and hitting ability from the left, right or middle spots. At HPA, he was a middle blocker. He’s enjoying his athletic hitting freedom at his new home.
“I’m more involved in the offense and I like that,” he said. “I’m more versatile.”
The low hitting clips — Kamehameha hit .182 — looked pretty even, which suggested the match was a survival of making fewer mistakes. And what hurt the visitors were untimely and unforced errors down the stretch.
“Kamehameha’s defense was better than ours,” Osorio said. “We knew that coming in, and our offense needs work. I think in the first game we gave away 20 points. We had errors at crucial times, service errors, hitting errors. … But it’ll get better.”
In Game 2, four of Kamehameha’s last five points were on unforced errors. After Waiakea stuffed Evan Enriques for a block and 24-24 tie, the visitors had back-to-back hitting errors.
It was the same thing in Game 3 with consecutive unforced errors closing the match. Waiakea was called for an out-of-position substitution infraction. Then a bad set was the fatal final point.
