JV girls volleyball: Lunas squeeze by, win first MIL season game

Sayje+Kanemitsu+%28left%29+and+Kaylee+Cambra+fight+to+stop+L%C4%81hainaluna+during+the+first+regular+season+game+for+Kamehameha+Mauis+jv+girls+volleyball+at+Ka%CA%BBulaheanuiokamoku+Gymnasium%2C+Sept.+2.+The+Warriors+lost%2C+2-1.

Photo by Quinn Williams

Sayje Kanemitsu (left) and Kaylee Cambra fight to stop Lāhainaluna during the first regular season game for Kamehameha Maui’s jv girls volleyball at Kaʻulaheanuiokamoku Gymnasium, Sept. 2. The Warriors lost, 2-1.

By Quinn Williams, news writer

Kamehameha Maui’s junior varsity girls volleyball Warriors lost in a close game against Lāhainaluna at Kaʻulaheanuiokamoku Gymnasium on Tuesday, September 2,.

As the game began, the first set started a bit slowly for KS Maui, with Lāhaina leading until the score was 10-5. With the help of last night’s kill leader, freshman, Talia Leauanae, and a 12-point service run by freshman Jazmine Corn, the girls quickly recovered. Leauanae scored 12 kills in the first set, and the jv girls got their first win, 21- 15.

With the first set under their belt, the Kamehameha girls entered the second set with a bit of a switch up.

“Second set we actually had a whole different line up from the first. There are two different lines up, because we have a lot more girls this year,” head coach Dukie Josiah said.

With the new line up, the girls had a noticeably difficult time with communication and scoring in comparison to the first set.

The set began at an even pace between the two teams until the Warriors fell behind on an 11-point service run by Luna freshman Ashley Ganer. Thought the girls rallied and eventually tied it up at 19-19, they were never able to fully recover before Lāhainaluna reached 21 and won the set with an incredibly close score of 21- 19.

Being that the teams were now tied, the third set had the audience hyped. The game goes to the winner of the best out of three sets. In the first two sets, the teams play to the first to 21, but in the third set, the first to reach 15 is the winner.

The teams started their final game steadily, going back and forth with points. The teams were tied up five times through the third set until they were tied at 9-9, when Lāhainaluna started to capitalize on the Warriorsʻ nerves and eventually put up twice as many points as Kamehameha and took the set and the game, 15- 12 and 2-1.

Even though five underclassmen are filling out the varsity roster, there were still plenty of jv girls to substitute in, and there is also a lot of height on the team. With no one less than 5 feet 2 inches tall and four athletes listed as 5-7 or taller, the future of Kamehameha Maui looks bright.