No. 8 Maryknoll holds off challenge from No. 6 ‘Iolani

Maryknoll believes it has the best middle in the state — just don’t ask which middle it is.

Tufanua Iuvale had 17 kills and Johnny Mayer added seven as No. 8 Maryknoll beat No. 6 ‘Iolani 25-22, 21-25, 25-18 on Saturday at Maryknoll.

Iuvale did his damage from the outside despite being recruited by colleges as a middle, while Mayer took over in the middle.

"We need more of (Iuvale’s) strength all over," Maryknoll coach Shawn Doo said. "He is one of our best middles. I think the best in the state, but we had to switch his position and he is a total team player."

Iuvale had only four errors to go with his 17 kills and was a constant threat to ‘Iolani’s smaller block. But it was on defense at the end that the Spartans hurt the Raiders the most.

Iuvale registered a kill with the deciding third set tied at 14, then Mayer took over. He blocked ‘Iolani’s Travis Cundiff and Micah Goshi in succession, then did the same to Andrew Overland after an errant bump by Andrew Okimura.

"He’s a beast," ‘Iolani coach Carl Rallita said. "He is an animal. I watch him play in club — he’s very well trained, he’s very well coached and is probably one of the better middles in the state right now and he is so underrated."

Mayer said his timing was slightly off in the first two sets, when he was held to three kills. All of them were off blocks despite getting over late and keeping his hands too spread apart.

"I was just in the right place at the right time," Mayer said. "Coach told me I had to close the block, so that’s what I did."

The 22-17 thid-set deficit was too much for the Raiders to overcome and Maryknoll closed it out on an ace by Seyj Engleman, the Spartans’ first of the match, to improve to 3-3. ‘Iolani dropped to 2-5, mostly because the Raiders committed 12 service errors to Maryknoll’s eight.

"It’s the story of our season," Rallita said. "We have been working a lot on our serve and we look real good in practice, but I think once the lights go on, our kids just tank. I’ve got confidence in the fact that we will bring it around."

‘Iolani’s five league losses have come to ILH powers Kamehameha (twice), Hawaii Baptist and Punahou in addition to Maryknoll on Saturday. The Spartans are in the same boat, losing twice to Punahou and once to Kamehameha. They took a set off the Warriors, but their sweep at the hands of the Buffanblu on Tuesday hurt the most.

"I think in the ILH anybody can win," Doo said. "But we weren’t mentally prepared (against Punahou), I didn’t prepare them as much. With so much volleyball going on, there wasn’t much of a game plan for the kids. Today we had a game plan."

Maryknoll needed every bit of its game plan to fend off ‘Iolani in the first set, getting three straight kills to turn a 22-all tie into a 25-22 win. Gabriel Shimizu started it with a kill from the back row before ‘Iolani had successive errors by Overland and Skky Passi. The final margin was the largest of the set.

The Raiders were much better in the end game in the second set, turning a slim 22-21 lead into a 25-21 win on kills by Okimura and Goshi. Shimizu hit into the net in front of ‘Iolani’s imposing double block to send it to a third set.

‘Iolani beat Maryknoll in three sets for third place at the Hawaii Volleyball Invitational last week. The Raiders visit Saint Louis on Tuesday, while the Spartans host Mid-Pacific the same day. Maryknoll and ‘Iolani will next play on April 10 at ‘Iolani.

" ‘Iolani is a really good team," Mayer said. "They came in our house and had us on our heels, I give them a lot of props. We just came back from a really disappointing loss at Punahou and hopefully this is a real momentum swinger."