OIA Boys Volleyball
Kaiser sweeps past Moanalua, 25-17, 27-25


  



Tue, Apr 9, 2013 @ Kaiser [ 6:00 pm ]


FINAL  1   2   3   4   5      
MOA (17-5) 17 25 0 - - 0
KAIS (15-5) 25 27 0 - - 2

Kaiser took sole possession of second place in the OIA Red East with a 25-17, 27-25 victory over Moanalua on Senior Night at Kaiser High School Gymnasium.

What's more, the win was all the more sweet for the nine senior Cougars' on the squad, as it also marked their first defeat of Na Menehune in a regular season match.

"We've never won against them before," said Casey Bolda, speaking of the current crop of nine seniors record against Moanalua, "so we played our personal best, and we finally beat them."

The Cougars looked sharp early, taking an early 5-2 lead on a Bolda ace, and continued to build momentum as the set progressed, benefitting from 9 unforced errors by Na Menehune in the opening game.

Senior outside Daniel Fraser came up big from the edge in the first, laying down a game-high 5 kills to lead the way for the Cougars, but the home team also showed good balance offensively, with middles Joe Hoddick (3 kills) and Makena Kaneaiakala (2 kills) providing some much needed punch in the interior.

"I felt good, just felt like we all came together finally." remarked Fraser. "We had some good communcation going, and it helped us a lot."

In set number two, it was Na Menehune who built an early advantage, racing out to a 5-point lead following a block by setter Zarin Augustiro and a Kaiser net violation to lead 7-2.

Undeterred, the home team found a way back into the match, trimming the lead to 7-4 on a Hoddick ace and then tying things up at 7-all on another Hoddick gem from the service line.

The lead would see-saw back and forth over the next 18 combined points, with 5 lead changes and 8 ties until Moanalua built a bit of breathing room at 21-17, as an Augustiro block was followed by a Reno Young kill off the Cougars' block and capped off by a Kalau Marasco-Ayao ace pushed the margin to four in the late stages.

But as in set one, miscues by Na Menehune kept the Cougars within striking distance, and the home team responded, clawing back to 22-21 on a Bolda kill.

Moanalua found some breathing room once again as Austin Matautia put down his team high fifth kill of the night to push the lead back to 24-21.

But the Cougars and setter Riker Kasamoto turned to Bolda down the stretch, and the 6-foot-2 senior delivered, notching his seventh and eighth kills in the closing moments, including a swing that tied the game up at 25-all.

During that stretch, Kaiser denied Moanalua at set point three times.

"In order to come back, I thought we had to go with our hot hitter and that was Casey Bolda." said Kasamoto. "Our middles did a really good job of trapping the blocks, and that Casey had one-on-ones the whole time and that got us back in the match."

Faced with the proposition of a third and deciding set, the only thing Fraser was concerned with was ending it in two.

"I felt like I surely didn't want that third set. My knee was going out but we needed to close out and just win."

And the 6-foot-3 opposite did just that, sending back a Matautia kill attempt to bring the Cougars to match point, and then ending it on the next serve, tooling a spike off the Na Menehune block to end it.

Kaiser head coach Jon Stanley spoke about the straight set win.

"What was important was that we got behind and in the past we tended to crash and burn, so the fact that they hung in there came back from a pretty big deficit is really going to be good for them as we go to the playoffs."

Kaiser's Bolda finished the evening with 8 kills, 5 digs, a block and a ace, while Frazer also put down 8 spikes and added 2 digs and a block. Kasamoto assisted on 22 kills and Hoddick chipped in 4 kills, 2 aces and 2 digs.

Augustiro led the way for Moanalua, with 10 assists, 3 kills, 3 digs and 2 blocks in a losing cause.



Reach Brien Ing at [email protected].




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