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Milan Ah Yat powered 22 kills and three aces and No. 8 University used an 8-3 edge in service aces to rally past No. 9 Le Jardin 25-20, 25-27, 20-25, 25-21, 15-7 to capture the ILH Division II girls volleyball title on Monday night at Charles B. Wang Gymnasium.
The Junior ’Bows (10-4) were 1-3 at one point in the regular season, enduring close losses against an avalanche of Top 10 teams in ILH D-II. University’s improbable climax to end the ILH season was shared by roughly 75 diehard student fans whose roars echoed through Le Jardin’s gym.
“I invited them. They’re my classmates,” said senior setter Makena Tong, who was clutch with 50 assists, eight kills and one ace. “
Pi‘i Carvalho tallied 13 kills and middle Jersey Villanueva had 10 for the Jr. ’Bows. Gia Ma and Tai Sorenson each had three aces.
University defeated Le Jardin on Saturday to force a winner-take-all match in the double-elimination playoff tournament.
Coach Brad Miller saw his ULS squad lose twice in the preseason tournament finals to eventual ILH regular-season winner Damien. Then the slow start in league play and a lot of heartbreak. A lot of long post-game talks.
“You know, these girls work so hard. I’ve never had a group of girls that work so hard. They’ve been hungry. Not having a season last year, they just wanted to come out this year and compete. It didn’t start out the way we wanted. Our league is ridiculously tough. Le Jardin, that’s the fourth time we’ve played them,” Miller said. “Our girls, they come to practice every day and work. That’s all a coach can ask for. They trusted the process and they earned this. It’s 100 percent them.”
The Jr. ’Bows did it with a young team. Tong is one of only three seniors.
“Our coach said we had to pick ourselves up. That was only the beginning of the season and yeah, they were tough losses, but we had all the tools that we needed and we tried to do it together. This is a new time, our first time playing together, and we did it,” she said.
Reese Diersbock led the Bulldogs with 25 kills, adding one block. Sydnee Walker added 14 kills and Ryli Kalahiki chipped in seven kills and a block. Setter Gennezia Hawkins delivered 43 assists with four kills and one ace.
It was a matter of serve and serve-receive in the final set as the team in black and green jumped to a 6-1 lead behind aces by Sorenson and Carvalho.
The home team rallied with blocks by Nicole Andersch and Kalahiki, pulling to within 6-5.
From there, University was unstoppable. Tong had a kill and a block on Diersbock, and Ah Yat had three kills in a row to snuff out LJA’s hopes of a comeback.
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