KEAAU – Hawaii Prep was a little short-handed before Wednesday’s match against Kamehameha, so Ka Makani coach Sharon Peterson called someone for help.
With senior middle blocker Asa Twigg-Smith out sick, she phoned Dylan Ngango Dikobo to fill in. He played last year but wanted to concentrate on working for a basketball scholarship.
The Warriors didn’t need any help but still defeated HPA 25-15, 25-27, 25-17, 25-19 in a BIIF volleyball match at Koai’a Gym in a season opener for both.
Last season, HPA lost to Konawaena in the BIIF Division II semifinals, after winning the league title in 2015.
Two years later, Peterson is searching for players. That’s how things work when a small private school struggles to field depth during spring’s busy season with track and field, judo, tennis, golf and baseball.
It doesn’t help that the relatively inexperienced Ka Makani next play at Ka’u on Saturday, then don’t have another match until Tuesday, April 4 against Keaau at home.
During the month of April, HPA has seven practices and 11 matches, squeezing competition and green players together.
The visiting Ka Makani have 10 players on the junior varsity, but most are inexperienced as well.
They had just two players on the bench: freshman Javan Perez, who’s new to the sport, and either Ngango Dikobo or Matjia Vitorovic, who shared the middle spot.
HPA lost four starters and return senior outside hitter/setters Ghar Pautz and Ethan Stake, and opposite Zach Chaikin. Sophomore middle Vitorovic, who saw limited action last season, is one new starter, and senior Kai Miller, who was a defender last year, is an opposite or right-side hitter.
Freshman Ryoma Sakakibara is the libero. He’s also a rookie player from Japan, and like most of the international students will fly home during spring break.
“We’re small in numbers,” said Peterson, who was nursing a cold. “But it’s a good group, and they play well together. We’ve got pretty good ball-handlers, and our hitting and blocking are getting better.”
Peterson, the former UH-Hilo coach and NAIA Hall of Famer, will need to sharpen her recruiting skills again. If Ngango Dikobo remains on the team, he’s a big boost as an athletic, mobile middle.
“I’m hoping he’ll stay on the team,” she said.
In the first set, both teams made a ton of unforced errors, but Kamehameha put together a pair of scoring runs of six and four straight points to close it out.
Avery Enriques and Jarvis Benito had three kills each in the first set for the Warriors, the three-time defending BIIF Division I champions.
In the second set, Pautz knocked down seven kills, and Kamehameha had three consecutive hitting errors at the end.
Kamehameha’s senior twins Addison and Avery Enriques didn’t play in the second set. The Warriors had more unforced errors, 12-11.
In the third set, the Warriors had a balanced effort with four kills from the Enriques brothers and three each from Chase Carter and Jarvis Benito.
The Kamehameha starters also played in the fourth set and raced out to a 21-13 cushion and never looked back.
Pautz led the way for HPA with 14 kills, and Stake and Chaikin each added seven kills.
Avery Enriques and Benito each had seven kills, and Addison Enriques finished with six kills for the Warriors.
