Hawaii Prep boys volleyball coach Sharon Peterson knows a good team when she sees one, and she saw one up close on Friday.
No. 2 Hawaii Baptist had no trouble sweeping away Peterson’s Ka Makani 25-18, 25-12, 25-18 in the semifinals of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Boys Volleyball State Championships at Kaimuki. The Eagles play Seabury Hall today at 5 p.m. at the Neal Blaisdell Arena in a rematch of last year’s title match.
Peterson, 70, won 511 games and seven national championships as UH-Hilo’s women’s coach before stepping down in 2002. All of that experience didn’t help against the talented Eagles.
"In some ways they are the best team we have seen this year," Peterson said. "We played some great teams in (Kamehameha-Hawaii) and Kohala, but HBA is really, really good. They are very disciplined with great ballhandling, they were doing a lot of things the right way."
Hawaii Baptist is 12-1 in the past five state tournaments, winning championships in 2008, 2009 and 2011 and losing only in the 2010 semifinals to Pahoa. Eleven of their 12 wins in that span have been sweeps, the lone exception being a 3-1 win over Kohala in the semifinals last year.
"I think we can get a little better," said HBA’s Michael Fisher, who had 19 kills and three service aces. "That’s been our goal this year. We got a little better in this match; we will get a little better in our next match, and if we do that we will get another banner for our gym."
Ka Makani hung around in the first game, but Fisher had four kills in a 7-3 run to end it. Hawaii Prep was overwhelmed in the second game, starting off down 6-0 and scoring consecutive points only twice. Hawaii Baptist ran a clinic in the third, but a late lapse allowed Hawaii Prep to close to within 21-18. No matter, HBA snapped out of it and Fisher had three more kills in the last four points.
"I think we started playing the score, not the point as we are trained to," HBA coach Teoni Obrey said. "It was just a little lapse. Overall we were efficient and for the most part played the way we wanted to."
Chad Barretta added 13 kills and Kaimana Triska seven and setter BJ Hosaka dished out 36 assists for HBA.
Tyler Van Kirk led Ka Makani with 10 kills. Kainoa Tanoai had 15 assists but struggled with HBA’s big block. Ka Makani plays McKinley for third at 1:30 p.m. today at the Blaisdell.
Seabury Hall 3, McKinley 0
The Spartans advanced to the state championship with a 25-21, 25-14, 25-14 win over the Tigers.
Seabury Hall, which won states in 2010 but lost to HBA in the final last year, was led by Rocky De Lyon with 17 kills and four blocks. He is going to have to bring a similar game today for the Spartans to hang with HBA.
"They (HBA) have zero weaknesses" Seabury Hall coach Caleb Palmer said. "They have great coaching and there is not a single chink in the armor and it will take a great game for anyone to beat them, us included, hopefully we are up to the challenge."
Devin Smith led McKinley with 10 kills.
OTHER GAMES
FIFTH-PLACE PLAYOFFS
Waimea def. Kahuku 25-20, 20-25, 25-16. Leaders—Waimea: Kalikea Shumacher-Lagundino 13 kills, Jonathon Tangalin 25 assists. Kahuku: LaMone Williams 9 kills, Joaquin Lessary 19 assists.
Kohala def. Pahoa 27-29, 25-21, 19-25, 25-15, 15-13. Leaders—Kohala: Donald Wong Jr. 26 kills, Elias Hood 17 kills, 2 assists. Pahoa: Nicklas Fisher 20 kills, Joseph Lefiti 30 assists.
