Mahalo for supporting Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Enjoy this free story!
Trailing two sets to none, Baldwin coach Kauila Houpo didn’t say much to his team.
Like he’s done all year, he left it in the hands of his captains.
Kalei Vaivai put down a team-high 14 kills and Olivia Wallace came on late with three of her 11 kills in the crucial fifth set as the Bears rallied for a 22-25, 23-25, 25-16, 25-15, 15-10 victory over Castle in the Division I opening round of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Girls Volleyball State Championships at Kitamura Gymnasium on the Farrington campus.
“They talked amongst themselves and knew they needed to do what we’ve done all year,” Houpo said. “I think they had to settle down a little bit, get the jitters out and play with some confidence.”
Although Baldwin (12-4) faced a 2-0 deficit, the Bears had late leads in both sets before Castle (11-6) went on big runs.
Castle sophomore Qaire Puaauli-Pauhi had four of her 14 kills during a 9-3 run in the first set that gave the Knights a 24-20 advantage.
Baldwin led by as many as five points and was up 20-16 in the second set when setter Kiana Tilton had an ace and served five straight points to put Castle up 21-20.
A service error by Castle evened the score at 23-23 for the 11th tie in the set before Joshell Lilio put down back-to-back kills to give the Knights a 2-0 match lead.
“We knew we could come back and all we had to do was do our jobs,” said Wallace, who had only two kills at that point.
Baldwin came back with a vengeance to start the third set, scoring eight of the first 11 points behind two kills and an ace by Ariana Newton.
Castle went on a 6-0 run to close the deficit to 16-12 before a hitting error and one of three aces by Taylor Badois got the Bears back on track.
Castle managed to keep the fourth set close early as Lilio had three of her match-high 20 kills to help even the score at 7-all.
Two net violations helped put Baldwin up 13-9 and the Bears scored five of the next six points on their way to forcing a deciding fifth set.
Newton, who finished with a match-high 42 assists, found her groove in the final set, spreading the ball around to four different Bears who put down kills.
Vaivai had the biggest one of the set, diving for a ball as Castle started to celebrate a point that popped back over the net and on the ground to put Baldwin up 5-4. That was part of an 11-6 run to end the match.
Baldwin will play No. 2 seed Mililani in a quarterfinal match today at 5 p.m. at Kitamura Gym.
Kamehameha 3, Pearl City 0
The six-time defending state champion Warriors swept the Chargers 25-11, 25-11, 25-22 to advance to the quarterfinals against third-seeded Kamehameha-Hawaii tonight at 7.
Amanda Wasko had a team-high nine kills and Misty Ma‘a added eight as both players hit .500 for the match. Kamehameha (10-3) hit .307 as a team compared to minus-.014 for the Chargers (8-7), who were led by Brandee-gail Chung’s 10 kills.
Sophomore Alohi Robins-Hardy had 30 assists and eight digs and five different Warriors had two aces each.
Chun accounted for 10 of the Chargers’ 16 kills.
77