No one saw it coming last season with Kealakehe and coach Kahinu Lee, who led his boys volleyball team to an unexpected BIIF championship.
Maybe he can pull a double scoop with his girls program, which has never won a BIIF title, let alone made an appearance at the HHSAA Division I tournament, always watching some combination of the Big Three (Waiakea, Hilo, or Kamehameha) grab state seats.
In a BIIF battle on Tuesday, a day before Hurricane Lane, the Waveriders swept Christian Liberty 25-13, 25-14, 25-17 at the Canefire’s Old Mill Field House, where Anastasia Tuifua rattled the gym with her thunderbolts.
The 5-foot-10 junior outside hitter, who was an All-BIIF first-team pick last year, knocked down a match-high 12 kills while lefty senior hitter Kea Wright, who also swings with her right hand, added seven kills for the Waveriders (2-0).
Brooke Perreira gunned nine kills to lead the Division II Canefire (0-3), who’ve already lost to fellow title contenders Kohala (four sets) and Hawaii Prep (three).
Besides Tuifua, sophomore setter Alike Kaiawe and sophomore libero Aaliyah Aukai-Takata are returning starters. But Kaiawe missed most of last season with an ankle injury. Against Kealakehe she did a nice job directing her hitters.
The Canefire also have a young nucleus. Perreira, a sophomore hitter, junior setter Rhylee Corpuz, senior middle blockers Riley Brown and Karlee Young, junior hitter Misty Becker, and senior libero Kyleigh Corpuz are returning starters. Freshman hitter Audrey Akina-Makaneole is the other starter.
Like Kealakehe, Christian Liberty has never won a BIIF title or reached states.
Last season, Kealakehe finished with a 12-5 record and Christian Liberty had an 8-9 mark in the White division of the three-division format, which was scrapped. It’s back to the old round-robin schedule.
Over the summer, Tuifua trained on her own. She still remembers the disappointment of losing to a veteran Hilo squad in four sets in the BIIF semifinals.
“We started off strong but kind of fell apart,” she said. “You could tell that Hilo had better chemistry and their players were together longer.
“This year, I want to become a better passer to help my team on the ground, and I want our team to click and build better chemistry. We want to build off last year’s momentum and go farther than the BIIF semis.”
It’s notable that Tuifua didn’t directly mention capturing a historical first BIIF title or a state berth. That’s down the line thinking because next month is huge for Kealakehe, which will play at Kamehameha on Sept. 18, host Waiakea on Sept. 25 and play at Hilo on Sept. 28.
“I’m not going to get ahead of myself,” Lee said. “I told the girls to practice hard every day, focus and see what happens. We’re young but scrappy. We’re working to play together as a team.”
There’s no doubt that Tuifua is the hammer and a difference-maker. The Waveriders will need someone against the Big Three to get sideouts and produce scoring runs.
“I like her height, aggressiveness, and power,” Lee said. “I like our teamwork and togetherness. Everybody is in it for the team.”
Tuifua also has a lot of help. Wright is lanky and athletic while middle blockers Pi’i Tupou and Tianney Spinney-Kuahuia are strong blockers and hitters.
Technically, the Waveriders showed solid ball-control against CLA. They didn’t offer a lot of free balls with bump overs. The defenders passed accurately, for the most part, to Kaiawe, who sliced up the Canefire’s block.
But equally important, Kealakehe also showed a golden first touch on the other side of the ball: serving. The ’Riders were sharp in serve-receive and deadly with dealing aces. They got 11 aces, including four from Aukai-Takata, who had three in a row in Game 2.
That’s sort of the weakness for the Canefire, who have an easier road to states than Kealakehe, which can either win the regular-season title or beat a Big Three member in the BIIF semifinals.
It’s possible for CLA to have three shots: regular-season title, the BIIF semifinals, and the third-place match, which might be a tough draw.
Kohala has gone to states the last two years, along with old pals Konawaena and Hawaii Prep. The Cowgirls do one thing extremely well: serve bullets. That’s the best weapon to score easy points and an irritant for wobbly passing teams.
CLA coach Gary Oertel noted that his team played a tournament on Oahu and faced teams like Radford, Mililani, and St. Andrews, which all had one or two servers who went off on scoring runs.
However, a good amount of repetition can sharpen the Canefire’s passing woes. And if Corpuz can get her hands on a ball, no matter how far she has to run, she’ll put up a hittable ball. Like Kaiawe, Corpuz has the precision part down cold.
“If we’re struggling with our passing, she does everything she can to make it work,” said Oertel, who noted they’ve been working with their power hitter Perreira, who cranks her arm and rips away. “We’ve been training Brooke to take her big swing and also to keep the ball in play. She’s really competitive, plays really hard and is coachable.”
The goals are simple for the Canefire because they all lead to an easier road to states.
They want to finish in the top eight to qualify for the BIIF playoffs, preferably in the top four to host a first-round match.
The Waveriders and Canefire are sort of in the same boat. Neither has been to states and this season, with a bit of a talent drain in both divisions, is a good time as any to pull off the unexpected, like the Kealakehe boys.
“I was talking to Kahinu before the match about his boys,” Oertel said. “No one expected that, but they believed in themselves and went out and did it.”
Now, it’s their turn — for both the Waveriders and Canefire.