Waiakea junior Claymon Morante looked like the best player on the volleyball court against Roosevelt, but unfortunately for the outside hitter/setter he had very little help.
The Rough Riders prevailed over the Warriors 25-18, 21-25, 19-25, 25-18, 15-4 in the first round of the Division I state championships on Monday at Waiakea’s gym, where sloppy passing highlighted the day.
Morante had a monster match against the OIA’s No. 3 team with 29 kills for a .389 hitting clip, 18 assists and 18 digs. No other teammate came close to his stats. AJ Doll had 10 kills but hit .077, Kamahoa Kaawaloa-Okita added seven kills but hit negative .038, and Kainalu Enriquez had six kills but hit .050.
“We had jet lag and took a while to get going, but eventually we did,” Roosevelt coach Kaui Mendonca said. “He’s (Morante) awesome. He’s a great hitter, passer, setter. They got a great team over there, and they play hard.
“We’ve been playing this way all year long, but we’ve survived every match somehow. We’ve always had troubles, but we’ve gotten out of it.”
The Warriors finished with 54 kills and 32 errors and hit .155. Take out Morante’s stats, and the Warriors hitting percentage drops to .010 percent. It’s unlikely they would have won two games, let alone the BIIF runner-up spot without Morante.
“It was OK. I knew I could have done better. I tried my best,” Morante said. “Our team didn’t want it, didn’t want to go on the plane to go to states as much as Roosevelt. Roosevelt came in and did the job.”
In the fifth game, all of Waiakea’s warts showed up. All season long, the Warriors have struggled with serve-receive passing and serving.
And unfortunately in volleyball, Morante can’t pass, set and hit the ball on the same play. When he sets, he gives his hitters clean swings, but the offense suffers. When he hits, the passing and his sets might not be in a hittable spot if someone else is passing. When he passes, he’s good enough to put balls down from the front and back rows.
The Warriors (7-4) passed slightly better than the Rough Riders (12-2), whose setters scrambled after errant balls. But in the last set, Morante was in the front row, and the passers were helpless against Roosevelt, which only had five aces and 10 service errors.
Waiakea had seven aces and 13 service errors and couldn’t pass a ball straight in the last set.
Danny Lieu went on a six-point serving run for a 7-1 cushion when Morante, who is also the team’s best passer, was stuck in the front row. There were two hitting errors and two free balls on bump-overs that quickly became Roosevelt points.
Morante hammered a kill to cut the lead to 7-2, but the Rough Riders went back to work with two aces for a 10-2 lead. Morante knocked down a kill, but Jayse Hayashi, who had four aces and two service errors, had a service miscue.
Waiakea’s shaky service-receive passing gave a free ball to the Rough Riders, who had a kill and scored the next two points on errant Warrior shots.
Roosevelt had a service error, but the Waiakea cheering was short-lived. Jordan Kan, who 18 kills and hit .271, slammed match point. Justin Toyama added 11 kills for the Rough Riders, who hit .250.
Roosevelt faces No. 1 seed Punahou in the quarterfinals on Thursday at Moanalua High’s gym. The season is over for Waiakea, which returns Morante, Kaawaloa-Okita, Doll, and Enriquez.
BIIF champion and No. 3 seed Kamehameha plays Kamehameha-Kapalama in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. at McKinley High’s gym.