The Kamehameha Schools Maui boys volleyball team won in three sets against the Seabury Spartans Tuesday at the Seabury Hall gym.
Both teams stayed neck-and-neck in the first set, tying the score 12-12 before the Warriors began to inch ahead and go on to win the set 25-21 with a kill from senior outside hitter RJ Moku.
“We’ve been working on RJ,” Head Coach Robert Brede said. “He can jump high . . . We gotta work on him hitting the ball from the top instead of from his ear straight in.”
Moku was one of the go-to hitters tonight, with at least six kills for the night.
“Hitting on top of the ball and snapping it was my goal for tonight and for the rest of the season, and it was working for most of my hits,” he said.
Seabury scored first in the second, but the score tied early at 3-3, and when senior Manaloa Aikala followed that with a kill, the Warriors began to pull ahead to a six-point lead, 11-5.
The Sabers called a timeout when the score reached 17-13; however, the Warriors stayed ahead, winning the second set, 25-17. Seniors Kahiau Andrade and Kolby Ah Sau were point leaders in this set with three kills each. With strong blocking from Aikala, the Warriors won by a comfortable 8-point lead.
“Mana’s been one of our best blockers in previous seasons,” Coach Brede said. “He had a couple of bad hits, but he knows that he can come back with a kill.”
The intense third set was filled with service errors and other minor errors from both teams.
“We made some errors, but very minor compared to previous games,” Coach Brede said. “Even when we were down, we kept our momentum.”
The Warriors committed multiple errors of all types throughout the first ten points of the game.
“We had to keep our game up, and not dwell on little mistakes,” Moku said.
The Sabers took a 6-1 lead at the start of the third set, but the Warriors started to catch up after a kill from Ah Sau. Senior Christian Martin Chu tied the score with a kill at 8-8, the Warriors overtook the Spartans and stayed out in front for the rest of the game .
The two teams brought everything out to reach the end of the game. The gym was silent as the setters concentrated on delivering strong hits to the opposite side of the court. The score gap grew and shrunk throughout the rest of the set, but the Warriors won 25-20.
“I guess the key word was confidence,” Coach Brede said. “They had a lot of confidence in themselves. They came out, and they did the job.”
“We were all on the same page and working together,” Moku said. “It was a good sight to see because we’ve been wanting a game like this.”
The Warriors’ next volleyball game will be on Thursday, March 28, against Lānaʻi High School at KS Maui’s Kahekili Gym.
