Courtesy Jimmy Miura

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Courtesy Jimmy Miura

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Hawaii Baptist picked up a rare victory over an ILH blue blood Tuesday night at Dan Liu Gymnasium.

The Eagles defeated last year's Division 1 state runner-up Kamehameha 20-25, 25-21, 22-25, 25-21, 15-13. HBA evened its league record at 2-2 while the Warriors fell to 1-2.



The match was closely contested throughout. HBA built a 17-10 lead in set one only to see Kamehameha go on an extended 15-3 run to win the set 25-20. The Eagles found themselves in the same situation in set two pushing out to a 17-11 lead. However, this time HBA was able to side out effectively and closed the set, winning 25-21. 


The third and fourth sets were more of the same as the teams traded runs with neither getting much separation from the other. The Warriors took the third set 25-22 to go up 2-1 in the match. The Eagles responded with a 25-21 win in the fourth set to knot the match at 2-2 and force a fifth set.



In the final set race to fifteen, HBA jumped out to a 5-0 lead with Jason Rivers leading the way. The junior outside hitter picked up a kill, then used his spin serve to take the Warriors out of system, resulting in four straight points. With HBA leading 10-5, the Warriors got kills from Isaiah Wana and Keahi Sniffen to close to 10-7 and force an Eagles timeout. HBA sophomore Henry Lee got a kill off the block to make it 11-7. But another Kamehameha kill followed by an HBA back row attack violation narrowed it to 11-9. After a Jaeden Miyahana kill brought the Warriors to 12-11, HBA senior opposite Sam Mokan put down an emphatic kill from the right side to make it 13-11. But the Warriors again responded. A Miyahana kill out of the middle coupled with an attack error by Mokan drew the Warriors even 13-13. After a Kamehameha attack error into the net, HBA senior setter Aaron Woolpert got a solo block on match point to clinch the victory.



Of his team's gritty win, veteran Coach Teoni Obrey saw the match as something that a competitive ILH may see much more of this season. "Pushing through to win in five sets - after losing in five sets last week - will hopefully help build our confidence. Both teams made a bunch of unforced errors tonight. We will definitely need to clean things up and continue to improve to remain competitive."

He added, "We have a lot of guys in new roles or learning new positions so there's definitely been some growing pains. But I am proud of this group and excited to see how much we can continue to grow together."



HBA, who won nine Division II state titles between 2008 and 2017 is in its ninth consecutive year in Division I.



The Eagles and Warriors will next face each other April 2 at Kamehameha's Kekuhaupi'o Gymnasium.