Kaiser goes to its ace to deal Kaimuki a defeat

Setting a brisk tempo is among Jolie Au’s objectives leading off a match from the service line.

The senior shifted Kaiser into high gear Wednesday night with a 13-point run to open the Cougars’ 25-11, 25-19 girls volleyball victory over Kaimuki.

Au served up six aces during the stretch to give the Cougars command of the first set against the host Bulldogs. Kaimuki battled in the second set before Kaiser finally pulled away to improve to 3-0 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Red East.

“That’s why she starts us off,” Kaiser head coach Ernest Noborikawa said. “She’s our first server every game. She’s our most consistent server, she has a nice jump float and it puts teams at a disadvantage early in the match.”

Au, the Cougars’ setter, credited her teammates for extending her stay on the service line, and contributed a couple of tough digs to the run.

“The whole team helped to keep it going,” she said. “We had to rally to get it back to keep the serve.”

Au is part of an eight-member senior class that rolled the momentum of a third-place finish in last year’s state tournament into the new season.

Kaiser, which won the OIA White title in 2009, qualified for last year’s Division I state tournament with the league’s sixth and final berth. The Cougars then won two matches to advance to the semifinals and won the first set against Punahou before falling in four.

“It really built our confidence,” Au said of the postseason run.

The Cougars have gotten off to a strong start this season, despite having junior Nikki Taylor, a member of the Star-Advertiser’s Fab 15 last year, sidelined while she recovers from ankle surgery.

Noborikawa said the Cougars are deeper this year than in 2010, an attribute emanating from a senior class that arrived on campus with considerable experience. Five are in their third seasons on the varsity, with middle blocker Haley Durham in her fourth.

“All of them played club ball, and as a freshman class they came in quite strong,” Noborikawa said. “They have continuously gotten better each year, and started hopefully a new tradition at Kaiser.”

Senior Dominique Chang and junior Kayla Nihipali had five kills each last night and senior Courtney Phillips had four.

Getting the numbers out has been more of a struggle for Kaimuki coach Sheri Sagayaga, who led Moanalua to an OIA title in 2000 and Radford to the OIA White crown in 2005.

A dip in enrollment at the school contributed to a smaller turnout, with nine players on the varsity roster. Although the Bulldogs, who are playing in the OIA White this season, fell to 0-3, Sagayaga came away from Wednesday night’s match encouraged by the team’s effort following Kaiser’s opening-set blitz.

Alexandria Puni led the Bulldogs with four kills and had three aces in the second set.

“They’re trying really hard, we’re trying to find our niche right now,” Sagayaga said. “The second set we learned to come together and work together.”