Hawaii Baptist sweeps past University

At the halfway point of the season, Emily Wada wants her team to continuously improve on its chemistry.

The way her Hawaii Baptist team rallied together for its win on Tuesday only proved the Eagles are finding their connections on the court.

Wada had nine kills to help Hawaii Baptist beat University 25-20, 26-24 in an ILH Division II girls volleyball match at Klum Gym. She said the Eagles were able to close out the match by "trusting each other as teammates to make the plays and having enough confidence to get the ball over."

The Eagles improved to 7-0. The Jr. Rainbows are 5-2.

"Chemistry is something we’d like to work on," Wada said. "It’s a new season, there’s new people on the team. Chemistry is basically a foundation to play."

Kaily Lum’s kill broke a 23-23 tie in Set 2 — the 10th tie of the set — and put HBA at match point. After a long rally, a dump set by HBA setter Ally Wada landed out to tie it at 24. Emily Wada’s kill then gave HBA its second serve for the match. Ally Wada and Courtney Togo’s block sealed the win.

Ally Wada had 18 assists for the Eagles and Togo led all players with three blocks.

"We’ve played in a lot of tight matches in the preseason and the early part of the regular season," HBA coach Myles Shioji said. "All those little mental reps we do in practice really helped."

Markayisha Masani had nine of her 12 kills in the final set and Danielle Woods had 10 assists for University.

"We were really pumped and trying to keep every ball in play, even if it was a bad pass or bad set," Masani said. "We tried to make it playable."

HBA’s connections extend beyond the court with two sets of sisters on the team. Kaily and Keri Lum combined for 10 kills in the win. Ally and Rylie Wada are both setters and Emily’s cousins.

"They’re sisters, sometimes they go at it," Shioji said. "In terms of competitiveness, it helps."

With HBA’s wins over University and St. Francis last Friday, the Eagles have beaten two of the tougher ILH D-II teams.

"Even though we’re a tiny team, we’ve proved we can play with the bigger kids," said Emily Wada, who at 5 feet 6 is one of the taller HBA players. "We’ve handled well. We don’t get discouraged."