Courtesy Hawaii Baptist Academy

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The Hawaii Baptist Academy girls varsity volleyball team is headed back to the state tournament. The Eagles defeated Maryknoll 25-21, 25-22, 31-29 at HBA's Dan Liu Gym to clinch the fourth and final ILH berth into the HHSAA New City Nissan Division II State Championships.

The teams played a five-set thriller on October 10 with the Eagles winning the first two sets before holding off the Spartans' bid at a reverse sweep. Tonight started the same way as HBA jumped out to a 2-0 lead. This time the Eagles managed to finish the sweep. It was anything but easy.

The marathon third set was tight throughout. The score was tied ten times before a Spartan kill resulted in a 19-17 lead. Following an HBA timeout, Maryknoll stretched it to 24-21 and had the first of its six set points.

Kills by HBA junior Marisa Nakata, sandwiched around a Spartan attack error, knotted the score at 24-24. Maryknoll served for the set again at 25-24 and 26-25, but each time the Eagles answered.

A kill off of the block by senior Caitlin Wong gave the Eagles their first set and match point 27-26. But following a Spartan point and an HBA attack error, Maryknoll had yet another set point at 28-27. Once again, Wong came through with a kill to even the score. After the Spartans staved off another HBA match point at 29-28, an attack error gave the Eagles their third match point. This time a Wong kill finally ended the set 31-29, giving the Eagles a hard fought three-set sweep.

Offensively, the Eagles were led by Nakata and Wong, who had 29 kills and 11 kills, respectively. Senior setter Leina Chu dished out 41 assists.

HBA, which finished as the 2022 Division II State Runner-Up, will now get the opportunity to make another state tournament run. Coach Myles Shioji was happy for his team following the match. "It's satisfying to reach the state tournament and I am happy for the girls to achieve this goal. There's a sense of relief." He added, "We have been working on the mental side of the game. Obviously it went five sets last time. But in the same position between the second and third sets tonight our coaches told the girls to just play the point. For the most part, I thought we did that."

The Division 2 state tournament will run November 7-10. Matches the first three days will be played at Kalani High School and Kaimuki High School. The final day - November 10 - will be at the Cannon Activities Center in Laie.