The 64th annual Haili volleyball tournament came to a close as adult teams played their title rounds on Saturday at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.
The day saw a good mix of dominant sweeps and neck-and-neck scraps, as teams from both local and from neighbor islands took home titles.
Women’s AA
The hitting power of Vibes proved too much for Da Dollz — who kept close, but ultimately fell in straight sets of 25-20 and 25-21.
Vibes closed out the tourney undefeated at 7-0, sweeping every opponent throughout Haili’s three days of play. They were also the first team to beat Da Dollz, who entered the final round 5-0.
Men’s AA
Sons and Big Island Boys duked it out in the first set of the men’s AA final, which Sons won narrowly — 25-23.
However, Big Island boys couldn’t keep things quite as close in the second set, falling 25-16 and giving Sons the sweep.
Sons finished at 5-1, and BIB finished 4-2 — their first loss coming during pool play by way of Unkoz Fishing.
Women’s A
‘Eleu VBC spent the whole tournament crushing their competition, and didn’t let up in the finale — routing Delulu in sets of 25-16 and 25-7.
‘Eleu — whose roster contains many local high school volleyball stars, including Hilo’s Kaliko Kealoha, KS-Hawai‘i’s Maela Honma, Waiakea’s Toryn Ono and more — finished the tourney 6-0 with every set won.
Delulu closed out 4-2, taking a loss in pool play before making a solid bracket run — during which they swept Pi‘opi‘o Bears’ Ku‘okoa squad in the quarterfinals before edging Haili A 2-1 in the final four to nab a finale bid.
Men’s A
The men’s A showdown between All Attitude VBC and Restless Natives was possibly the most intense matchup of the day.
All Attitude — which is comprised of Big Island locals who have years of experience playing together — came out hot with a 25-15 win in the first set.
“We’re all local from here,” All Attitude setter and KS-Hawai‘i volleyball coach Albert Pacheco said. “We have some who moved away to O‘ahu, but they came back and play with us. A bunch of players are from Kona side, Ka‘u. We’ve been playing together, most of us for like ten, 15 years.”
Among those players are Sheydin-Dean ‘Kawai’ Wilbur-Gabriel — a Hilo HS volleyball star who graduated last spring — and somewhere between four and 50 men from the Tandal family.
“There’s too many (Tandals),” Pacheco joked, “but there’s at least four or five of them on the team.”
After cruising through the first set, it got rough for All Attitude in the second — as a fired up Restless Natives squad trounced them 25-15.
“We couldn’t pass, run our plays, our middles or what we normally do,” Pacheco said. “We were unable to execute what we do normally, so that kinda took us out of our game. We played them before in pool play, and they were a good match then, too. I think they were pretty ready for us.
“Before the third set, we just refocused. We told out guys to get back to a positive vibe and supporting each other. We needed to fix our passing and get back to our serving so that we could play our game.”
The positives vibes came through, and All Attitude sailed to a 15-10 third-set victory.
Women’s masters
On the other side of the auditorium, another battle ensued in the first and only matchup in the women’s masters division.
Haili Masters and Kolohe Ladies duked it out for three sets, and each serve yielded plays more unpredictable than the last.
Kolohe Ladies reached 24 points with a double-digit lead in the first set, but Haili’s squad made the most impressive scoring run of the day — surging back to meet Kolohe at 24-24. Kolohe still managed the win 26-24, but the tone had been set for the rest of the match.
Haili took the next set 25-18 — then the tide turned again, and Kolohe took a commanding win of 15-7 to close out the game.
Men’s masters
O‘ahu-based Bay Club boasted a perfect tournament, ending 7-0 with no set losses, and dominating Big Island Roots in straight sets of 25-15 and 25-18.
Roots had an otherwise dominant showing in the tournament, ending 5-2 with both of its losses coming from Bay Club.
Women’s B
All Attitude VBC’s first title of the day was won by its women’s B squad, which swept Ha‘aheo in sets of 25-18 and 25-20.
Men’s B
Aloha Days, a team whose players hail from both O‘ahu and Maui, were the first team to beat Kaukaha Titaz — sweeping them in sets of 25-18 and 25-22 to win the first finale of the day.
Aloha Days finished 6-0 with just one set lost on the tourney, and Keaukaha Titaz finished at 5-1.
