What a difference a few days can make.
The top-ranked Punahou girls volleyball team harnessed its disappointment from Friday night’s home loss to No. 2 Kamehameha and returned the favor to the Warriors with a 25-19, 25-23 victory in a special ILH playoff match on Monday night at Kekuhaupio Gym.
Behind 12 kills from Carly Kan, nine kills by Claire Feeley and 29 assists from Tayler Higgins, the defending state champion Buffanblu (10-1) operated a crisp offense and captured the league’s first-round title. They became the first of two ILH teams to clinch a state berth.
“We took the loss to heart,” said Higgins, the team’s senior setter. “We went back in the gym the next morning and we went hard. We made sure nothing was the way it was the night before. We had to really fix a lot of things, and we told ourselves to focus on the next play instead of holding onto the last point. That was kind of a problem for us on Friday night.”
Late rallies by Kamehameha (9-2) in both sets fell short. The hosts turned a 22-20 deficit into a 23-22 lead in Game 2, only to see Punahou rattle off three straight points to send the crowd home in silence.
After evening the ILH standings with Friday’s big win, Kamehameha got to host the special match thanks to a card draw. That was the last of several possible tiebreakers between the two after each squad won in straight sets on its opponent’s court in standard play.
But with Punahou’s outstanding passing and efficiency on this night, the site didn’t matter. Especially with Kamehameha’s best all-around player, junior Alohi Robins-Hardy, out for much of Game 1 for what coach Chris Blake said were team reasons.
“I think Punahou made a lot of great adjustments,” Blake said. “Put us into a lot of different spots, as I knew their team would. We didn’t necessarily bring our best match and against a Punahou team like that, we definitely have to. They made a lot of key plays when it mattered and ended up coming out on top.”
Starting today, Kamehameha must fend off other ILH contenders ‘Iolani, Mid-Pacific and Maryknoll for a top-two finish in the second round, which switches to a best-of-five format. Punahou will still play to secure the ILH’s seeded berth to states.
After a sluggish start — in large part due to the early absence of the versatile Robins-Hardy — the hesitant Warriors stared at an 11-6 deficit on three straight Kan kills. When it wasn’t Kan using roll shots to her advantage, quick sets to Feeley at the middle were lethal.
“I think today we just really clicked,” said Kan, a 5-9 senior hitter. “It was great to see all the middles getting involved, and outsides and everybody getting their kills. It wasn’t easy; we just worked really hard.”
Kamehameha was a new team once Robins-Hardy entered for the first time with the Warriors trailing 17-10 in Game 1. They were instantly buoyed by her presence and soon went on a 5-1 run to make it 19-15.
The Warriors got it to 20-17 on a Robins-Hardy ace, but Punahou put it away from there with four crisp sets from Higgins to teammates over the next five points.
“I think (Robins-Hardy) gave them a boost, an emotional boost,” said Punahou coach Peter Balding, who chalked up the win to passing. “For what it’s worth, I think they were looking at it on the court, they tried their best, but it was, ‘Yeah, but we’re less than.’ When she came on, it was, ‘OK, now we’re even.’ And Game 2 was a telltale sign of that.”
The Warriors rallied from significant deficits three times in that frame, but the defending state champs were not to be denied. Feeley was key late with a step-out kill, then a partial block on the final point.
