Moanalua eases up and finds success

Like any good power pitcher, the Moanalua girls volleyball team learned that it can’t rely strictly on its fastball on Thursday night.

Senior Analise Austin had 10 kills and sophomore Silerolia Gaogao added seven as No. 3 Moanalua beat Kalani 25-11, 25-17 in the league opener for both teams at Moanalua.

"I think they figured out our hard hits," Moanalua coach Tommy Lake said. "They started digging those every time, so what mattered was when we started changing speeds and setting the middle."

Moanalua hosts Anuenue on Tuesday while Kalani’s second OIA match will come at Kalaheo the same day.

Austin and Gaogao carried Na Menehune through the first set, getting every one of Moanalua’s kills off power shots and sealing off the middle to limit Kalani to four kills. Austin (5 feet 11) and Gaogao (5 feet 10) were the tallest players on the court and Kalani only had 5-11 Courtney Panoke to match them. Kalani has only two other players taller than 5-8.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, Panoke rotated out and was only on the floor for half the match while Gaogao stayed in for the majority of the time.

Kalani targeted Gaogao with nearly every serve, but its only ace of the game came when it didn’t target her.

"Her passing has improved a lot," Lake said. "Because her hands are strong, she doesn’t have to back up and she can still get a decent pass. She played more in the middle last year, and is getting better with the transition to outside."

Despite running unopposed, Gaogao gave the Falcons hope in the second set when she had errors on her first two swings and Jenna Park had one more and was blocked to give the Falcons a 4-0 lead.

Anuhea Paiva put an end to that, however, drilling a kill on a power shot for Moanalua’s first point. Na Menehune later took a 6-5 lead and cruised from there when they started going back to their middles and relied in dinks and dunks rather than the power game. Kalani had seven errors the rest of the way to Moanalua’s four.

"(Moanalua is) big, they do everything right," Kalani coach Janeen Waialae said. "You better show up if you want a chance of beating them. They are everything we want to be, what we strive for."