Over the past two evenings, the Maryknoll volleyball team has made it abundantly clear that it is closer to the top of the loaded ILH than it is to the middle.
The Spartans had their way with ‘Iolani at ‘Iolani on Wednesday night, beating the Raiders 25-19, 25-16. They pushed No. 2 Kamehameha on Tuesday before losing in three sets. The loss helped them against the Raiders.
"It was a battle," Maryknoll coach Shawn Doo said about the loss to Kamehameha. "It was one of those losses that didn’t really hurt us because we battled. It helped us today a little bit."
No. 6 Maryknoll didn’t have to battle to beat No. 7 ‘Iolani for the second time this season. The Spartans defeated the Raiders in three sets in their first meeting, but were never in danger of playing for more than an hour on Wednesday.
Freshman Seyj Engleman and senior Johnny Mayer led the way with eight kills each for the Spartans and Tufanua Iuvale added six. Maryknoll didn’t have its first hitting error until Mayer hit long in the second set to give ‘Iolani a 6-5 lead. The teams played even until ‘Iolani’s Travis Cundiff, Erik Yamada and Andrew Overland had successive errors to give the Spartans a 15-12 lead. Engleman took over from there, exploiting ‘Iolani’s block for four kills in eight plays to make it 22-15 Maryknoll. Skylan Engleman ended the onslaught with a dump over the front line that found the floor.
"We know ‘Iolani’s blocking alignment, so we were just trying to set (Seyj Engleman) up for that one hit," Doo said. " ‘Iolani is tough, they are well-coached. They really do their homework and know what they are doing."
The Raiders dropped to 4-7. ‘Iolani visits Punahou on Tuesday and Kamehameha next Saturday.
"At some point in time, we are going to have to produce a better product during matches," ‘Iolani coach Carl Rallita said. "During practice we look like an all-tournament team. I’m still so proud of what we are doing, we just aren’t delivering it during matches, and for me that’s my responsibility."
The Spartans improved to 6-4 with all of their losses coming to either No. 1 Punahou or Kamehameha. They host Saint Louis on Tuesday before getting another shot at the Buffanblu next Saturday in hopes of earning one of the ILH’s two state berths.
Rallita certainly likes what he saw out of the Spartans. Maryknoll had 28 kills with only three errors while forcing his Raiders into 12 errors on 22 kills.
"In my eyes, they are a lot more fluid than before," Rallita said. "The first time we played them, I thought they were going to be better than they were and they still took it to us. They cleaned up a lot of stuff since we saw them last. We cleaned up a lot of stuff, too. We just didn’t execute."