KEALAKEKUA — Honokaa didn’t need to breathe fire on offense with tons of kills because its solid ball-control was more than enough to stifle Pahoa.
KEALAKEKUA — Honokaa didn’t need to breathe fire on offense with tons of kills because its solid ball-control was more than enough to stifle Pahoa.
The Dragons played clean ball and defeated the Daggers 20-25, 25-20, 25-13, 25-18 in the Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division II third-place game Saturday at Konawaena’s Ellison Onizuka Gym.
In a stat that summed up the match, Pahoa had far, far more unforced errors than Honokaa, 50-30.
The last set was the best example of the Daggers’ struggles with passing in serve-receive, setting and hitting. They had 19 giveaway points; the Dragons had only eight.
Basically, that meant Honokaa only needed to score six points in the fourth set. Monica Muskat, a 5-foot-10 senior middle blocker, had two kills, while Randy Iona, Tehane Reynolds and Kayla Requelman had one each. The other point was Ashlynn Kaiamakini’s ace.
Muskat finished with 13 kills, Reynolds nine, Kaiamakini six, Iona five and Requelman four for the Dragons (10-7), who qualified for the Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II state tournament for the first time since 2010, the end of a four-year run.
The season is over for the Daggers (8-8), who lose only one starting senior but a key one in 5-8 senior middle Erleen Oguma. She had 15 kills while Jordyn Tagalicod added 11 kills.
In fact, the firepower part was pretty even. Pahoa had 38 kills while Honokaa had 37 kills. But a difference of 20 unforced errors was too big of a deficit for the Daggers.
In the first set, Pahoa had a somewhat comfortable 22-16 lead that evaporated with four straight unforced errors. Suddenly, the Daggers led just 22-20 and the Dragons were on a comeback hunt.
But Oguma knocked down her fifth kill of the set from the back row. Tapenga Orevillo followed with a kill, and Tagalicod, who had four kills, closed the set with an ace.