OIA Girls Volleyball
Castle defeats Farrington to end 35-year title drought


Kalani Takase | ScoringLive
October 24, 2024, 3:04am

  

Wed, Oct 23, 2024 @ Mililani [ 5:30 pm ]

Farrington

1

Castle

3

FINAL  1   2   3   4   5      
FARR (8-8) 15 25 15 17 - 1
CAST (9-6) 25 17 25 25 - 3
Kill: T. Lum (CAST) 19 kills
Blk: C. Togia White (FARR) 5 blk
Ast: L. Kapu (CAST) 41 ast


MILILANI — For the Castle girls' volleyball team, years of hard work and persistence finally paid off Wednesday night. 

Trystin Lum had 19 kills and Emily Robins 17 to lead Castle to its first league title in 35 years following a four-set win over Farrington in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division II championship. 

The Knights (8-4) downed the Governors (6-7) by set scores of 25-15, 17-25, 25-15 and 25-17 to claim their first OIA title since 1989. It is their fourth overall league crown. 

Castle first-year coach George Ehia was a year removed from his senior year of high school at Farrington when the Lady Knights last sat atop the mountain of OIA volleyball. Prior to their championship in 1989, they won in back-to-back years in 1976 and 1977. 

"It feels great to bring this level of play back to the Windward side because back in the 80's I believe Castle dominated back then, so it was nice to have this bunch of girls bring it finally back because it's been a long break, a long hiatus for us so it was nice to have them be able to bring this back for Castle," said Ehia, who served as coach of the school's White Division team a year ago. 

Lum, one of nine seniors for the Knights this fall, spoke about the level of work ethic that Ehia commands from his players. 

"He pushes us every day at practice. We run a lot, we do a lot of conditioning, we play a lot and we scrimmage, so I think we were set up for this and it just made us a whole lot better and especially for our seniors — we got nine seniors on the team — so it made us make our imprint," said Lum, who took a match-high 47 swings. 

Lum's 19 kills were against 10 errors for a .191 hitting percentage. She also collected four digs and three aces. In the few instances outside of set 2 that the Knights did struggle, they were often stuck in a rotation with Lum in the back row. When Lum got her opportunities in the front row, she made the most of them. 

"Trystin had a little stint where she was kind of having a hard time, but she played amazing," Ehia said. "She did well. I think we got two of our pins into double digits and they both did well and then even Railye Makainai we tried to get her in for a little bit because she was good the other night, but we were just trying to change the pace."

During a 9-2 run by the Knights midway through the opening set, Lum accounted for two kills and a pair of aces, the last of which gave her team a 19-9 lead that it would not relinquish. 

After Castle won set 1, the teams went back and forth in set 2. Farrington went on a 7-1 run to seize a 14-8 lead, but Castle came back to score seven of the next eight points to tie it at 15 after Lum served up another ace. However, Abelyn Toloai put down the next point with a kill from the left side, which ignited a set-ending 10-2 run by Farrington. Toloai finished off set 2 with back-to-back service aces to even the match at one set apiece. 

The Govs carried momentum over into the set 3. They used a 6-0 run to take an 11-6 advantage. Just a few points later, however, Castle reeled off a tide-turning 15-0 run that included a trio of aces by Lehiwa Kapu. Lum's kill from the left side that was set up by Kapu to close out the run made it a commanding 23-12 lead for the Knights, who went on to win the third set comfortably. 

"Lehiwa just went back and we practice serving every single day, we try to practice tough serving. Lehiwa's actually been struggling with her serving, but tonight she turned it on and she did well," Ehia said. 

Lum said the Govs' tinkering with their lineup for set 2 led to some of her team's struggles. Ultimately, the set loss reinvigorated Castle's drive for a league crown. 

"Obviously we were kind of down. They switched up the lineup a little bit, which made us kind of frantic, but we came back. We wanted it and we put our hearts out there and we were like, ‘They're not getting this. We're hungry for it,' " said Lum, who will play at the University of Hawaii at Hilo next year. 

Kapu, who amassed 41 assists, seven digs, four aces and two kills, said she relished the opportunity to get momentum back on the Knights' side with her lengthy run at the service line in set 3. 

"I think that I knew that I had to get us back up and I concentrated. I just fought for my team and we won the (third) set," Kapu said. "I think that we knew that we wanted it. We had a lot of energy and then the second set we just kind of let down, but we got back up from there."

The teams were tied at 8 in set 4 before Lum put down five kills in a span of six points to make it a 13-9 lead for the Knights. The Govs scored the next four points to even the score, but Castle took the lead for good when Eryn Kauanui put down the next point on a middle set from Kapu. 

Later in the closing set, Lum went cross-court off the feed from Kapu to make the score 22-16. After Rylie Matsuda served up an ace, Kapu got offensive when she slammed down an overpassed ball to set up match point. Lum, fittingly, finished off the match with her eighth kill in set 4.

Castle hit .145 for the match to .087 for Farrington. 

Matsuda came up with a match-high 21 digs for the Knights, who tallied 11 aces against six service errors. 

Matsuda was responsible for one of those aces and also registered four assists. Lum credited the junior libero for playing a critical role in keeping the team in system.

"She's amazing. She's amazing at our out-of-system setting," Lum said of Matsuda. "She puts the ball where it needs to be and she doesn't give the hitters a problem with messing up our footsteps and getting our approach right."

Ehia pointed to the team's practice routine that emphasizes, in addition to tough serving, bettering the ball with each touch. 

"We've run that every single day in practice to try and get all these awkward balls coming at them and it really helped and it paid off for them tonight, Ehia said. 

Despite starting off OIA East play by winning its first five matches, Castle entered the postseason having lost three straight and four of its last five in the regular season. All four losses were to Division-I foes in Kahuku, Kalaheo, Moanalua and Kalani. Lum said that the Knights heeded Ehia's advice and took the defeats in stride. 

As the top seed out of the East, Castle had a bye in the first-round of the six-team D2 tournament. When it finally took the court in last Wednesday's semifinal round, Castle sputtered out of the gates and dropped the opening set against Waianae before it went on to win the next three. 

"Overall it kind of put us in a slump," Lum said of the close to the 10-game regular season. 

"If you saw that Waianae game we were kind of rusty in that first set, but after that coach George was like, ‘Hey, that was D1 (competition), that doesn't matter in D2,' so he was like, ‘Push hard. Keep pushing. Every day in practice come in with something that you want to work on and go through that and work on it in practice and not in the game,' " Lum shared. 

Lum was nearly at a loss for words after receiving her championship medal 

"This is amazing. I haven't fully comprehended everything — it's like, whoa, we just won that," she said. 

Kapu emphasized that once the Knights pull ahead in set 4, they knew they had to close it out then and avoid a fifth set. 

"I think we pushed. We didn't want to let down and we knew that we've been fighting for this for the past three years. Every year we came up short and this was our year to take it," Kapu said. "It feels amazing because we've been fighting for this for three years and we finally became D2 champions."

Among those in a congratulatory mood for Ehia and the Knights was Farrington coach Raymond Patcho. Ehia and Patcho are classmates from the Govs' class of 1988. The former also gave the latter his first coaching stint many years ago with his Onipa'a Volleyball Club.

"They've got a lot of seniors that played varsity all four years and the best thing they did is have George as their leader because George just changed all their mentality, their offense and they look wonderful out there. At the same time, I thought our young girls played high-level volleyball and kept fighting to the end," Patcho said. 

Toloai led the Govs with 13 kills and 11 digs. She had served up a pair of aces. McKayla Delosantos and Kalona Valene Kekahu-Laloulu contributed five kills and four digs apiece and Kahea Tisalona-Perez had 16 digs in the loss. 

"It's just the little things out there that we just gotta fix up. To me, we kept fighting to the end. We made some little mistakes here and there, but we'll prepare, get back in the gym and prepare for states," said Patcho, whose squad was seeded second out of the East and had won four of its last five matches entering Wednesday's final, including a four-set win over West top-seeded Pearl City in the tournament semifinals. 

Both Farrington and Castle, along with third-place finisher Pearl City, will represent the OIA in next week's New City Nissan/HHSAA Division II State Championships. 

The Knights swept the Govs when the teams met in the regular season back on Sept. 16 in Kaneohe. 

Farrington was seeking its 11th OIA championship and first since 2015. 


Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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