Roosevelt's Levi Key has a kill attempt blocked by Kahuku's Noel Thorp (4) and Ty Shintaku (8). Sean Nakamura | SL

View image 1 of 2

Kahuku's Micha Tanuvasa-Maiava (11) makes a kill attempt past Roosevelt's Levi Key (17) and Ty Takada (18). Sean Nakamura | SL

View image 2 of 2

Kahuku arrived a little more than fashionably late for a best-of-three match with the Rough Riders at Roosevelt High School gymnasium Tuesday, and the minimal pregame for the Red Raiders showed, as the home team dominated the first set by 25-7 margin.

"We didn't have a lot of time to warm up, so I guess we kind of just used that first set as a warm up." remarked Kahuku setter Quayd Ah You.

Warm-up or not, the home team dominated set one, winning by an eighteen point margin, but the Red Raiders rebounded in a big way in sets two and three, rallying to come away with a three set victory, 7-25, 25-17, 15-11.

Roosevelt (4-4) looked sharp in set one, jumping out to a quick 6-2 advantage on a Rusty Vincent kill bookended by a pair of Konohia Scott aces, and never looked back.

"I think we were serving well (in the first)," said Roosevelt head coach Kaui Mendonca, "and cut down on our unforced errors."

Statiscally, the Rough Riders couldn't have played much better, committing only three errors in the set to the Red Raiders' nine.

Vincent and Keanu Furtado had three kills each to lead the way for Roosevelt in the opening game.

Kahuku (3-4), facing a must-win second, certainly made the most of the opportunities presented, and built an 8-2 advantage on the strength of a Ty Shintaku solo block and a pair of Noel Thorp kills.

"Going into that second set we just thought that we'd better wake it up," said Ah You. "We didn't come all the way down here (to lose in straight sets)."

The margin was cut to 23-16 late as Roosevelt went on a mini run highlighted by a pair of blocks by Levi Key, but Ala Tito put an Ah You set down to bring Kahuku to match point, and a Roosevelt miscue two points later evened the match at one set all.

Kahuku was led with four kills each from Thorpe and Micha Tanuvasa-Maiava in the set two win.

Both teams came out a bit tentative in the deciding third set, evidenced by 11 unforced errors for both teams combined, but a turning point in the set came at the service line at 5-all, when Ty Shintaku's knuckleball serve in the left corner fell unreturned for a key ace, giving Kahuku a lead they would not relinquish.

Tanuvasa-Maiava notched yet another kill to push the margin to 10-7, and Jackson Kaio's ace on following serve extended the margin to four.

"When you get aced, its almost worse than a kill sometimes," commented Mendonca on the impact of the two Kahuku aces in the third set. "Its the first pass, you typically want to get that first one at least up."

Roosevelt managed to stave off one set point at 14-10, when Key registered his fourth block of the night to trim the margin to three, but a misplayed ball on the next set would end the match.

Tanuvasa-Maiava, a freshman outside hitter, finished with a match-high 11 kills, including four in the final set. He also added a five digs, also a match-high.

"This is his first season, and he's our best passer, best setter and our best hitter." said Kahuku head coach Kaniela Kalama. "So we had him setting earlier this season but, we needed more stable hitting and better passing so we took him out of that."

Ah You, a senior, who took on the setting duties tonight, dished out 15 assists and added a kill, an ace and 2 digs, much to the approval of Kalama.

"Quayd is really our libero, but we've been trying a whole bunch of different things trying to find something that will work, and seems like this one works the best, though we still have a lot of pukas to fill." said Kalama.

Vincent led the Rough Riders with seven kills, and setter Isaiah Udani added 11 assists.