HBA Athletics

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HBA Athletics

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HBA Athletics

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HBA Athletics

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The Eagles are headed back to the state tournament for a third consecutive year. This time they will be going as ILH champions.

Hawaii Baptist (9-0) defeated Maryknoll (2-7) at HBA's Dan Liu Gym to clinch their first ILH title since 2016. Set scores were 25-12, 25-16, 25-16. Although HBA has finished as the Division II state runner-up three times since their last state title in 2015, they had not won a league crown in the intervening seasons. With the title secured, HBA will be the seeded ILH representative in the upcoming  HHSAA New City Nissan Division II State Championships.

The Eagles swept the Spartans on September 13 at Maryknoll. Tonight followed a similar script as HBA started fast and played steadily throughout the match, using a 7-1 run to begin the first set, then another 7-1 run to finish it going away 25-12.

The second set was much closer to start. Leading 8-7, HBA went on a four point run led by the tough serving of senior Makena Lincoln, who had an ace sandwiched between two Spartan attack errors. Following a Maryknoll timeout at 12-7, the teams traded points until the score was 19-14. The closing 6-2 run was led by another quartet of seniors. Katelyn Albano and Marisa Nakata contributed service aces, while Makana Doane and Asia De La Cruz put down kills.

The Eagles jumped out to a 21-10 lead in the third set with senior Brooke Brennan getting three kills and Nakata notching three kills of her own. Several reserves closed out the match as junior Emerson Sisco had two digs, while fellow junior Kate Iida assisted on the match point kill by freshman May Shiraishi.

Offensively, the Eagles were led by Nakata's 14 kills. Brennan and De La Cruz added 4 kills apiece. Albano, last year's libero, dished out 23 assists. Sophomore libero Jackie Miyazawa anchored the defense with 17 digs, while junior Kylie Ancheta contributed 10 digs to go along with 5 service aces.

HBA, which finished as runner-up (2022) and in fourth place (2023) in the past two Division 2 state tournaments, will now get the opportunity to make another state tournament run.

Coach Myles Shioji was pleased with his team's workman-like performance.

"We always stress to the girls to play one point at a time. We have been working on siding out quickly, on minimizing scoring runs by our opponents. For the most part, we did those things pretty well tonight," said Shioji.

"This is a team led by upper-classmen. They have worked on the mental part of their game through the years and are just trying to pass on (to the underclassmen) what they were taught by many of our past players."

The Eagles close their regular season with a match against Le Jardin on October 11.

The Division II state tournament will run October 30 to November 2. Matches the first three days will be played at Kalani High School and Kaimuki High School.  The final day - November 2 - will be at the Cannon Activities Center in Laie.