Punahou rallies past Hawaii Baptist in volleyball

Kahale Clini pounded 21 kills and five aces as Punahou rallied for a 25-15, 23-25, 25-27, 25-22, 15-8 win over Hawaii Baptist on Tuesday night.

A pensive gathering at Dan Liu Gymnasium saw the Eagles nearly take the match in four sets — which would have been HBA’s second victory over Punahou in as many tries.

Instead, Clini and his teammates clutched up and improved to 5-1 in ILH play.

“We gutted one out tonight. We didn’t play our best match, but we played a great Set 1 and a great Set 5, and we gutted out a tough Set 4,” Punahou coach Rick Tune said. “We’ve got to get back in the gym, keep working on stuff and get ready for another war against ‘Iolani on Friday.”

HBA dropped to 2-4 after losing a key starter, Jared Cruz, in the final moments of the fourth set.

“Our team is so close. They care about the guy. I think they were more concerned about him,” Eagles coach Teoni Obrey said. “This is a mentally tough bunch. They kind of thrive on adversity, so I’m proud of them for doing that. We’ve got to fix a few things and try to get better. We’ve got a big match on Friday. This group has a chance to be real special and do a lot of good things for our school.”

The fourth was tied at 20 with HBA ahead two sets to one when Cruz injured his left hand on a block attempt. Ian Kinney’s right-side kill gave the visitors a 21-20 lead.

HBA got a kill from Presley Longfellow and a roof by Matt Mokan on Clini for a 22-21 edge. However, kills by Adam Hadar and Clini sent Punahou back in front, 23-22. Clini then iced the fourth set with back-to-back aces, forcing a fifth game.

Punahou then dominated as Clini racked up seven kills. With Brody Badham at serve, the Buffanblu opened the lead to 9-2 and never looked back.

Longfellow had eight kills to lead HBA. Jordon Qin added seven, and Mokan and Jackson Lincoln chipped in six kills each. Lincoln added 11 assists, while Kamden Kaneshiro-Takeuchi dished a team-high 16 assists.

Hadar was very active and finished with 15 kills from the middle. Kinney tallied 13 kills, Evan Porter had 12 kills and seven digs, and James Taras added 10 kills. Matthew Chun had a team-high 10 digs.

Punahou’s freshman setters had another superlative effort. Kanalu Akana had 33 assists, one ace and one block, and Elijah Smith had 32 assists and two aces. Akana and Smith have filled in since 6-foot-7 senior setter Aidan Rigg, a UC Irvine signee, suffered a leg injury in preseason.

Hawaii Baptist won the Beach City Invitational (Calif.) two weekends ago, then returned home and reached the Gold Bracket semifinals of the Hawaii Boys Volleyball Invitational, falling to nationally ranked Beckman (Calif.) in maximum sets.

Punahou’s progress has been no surprise, yet still mesmerizing to witness. Clini was cold early with just one kill, three hitting errors and a service error while Punahou ground out a 15-12 lead in the opening set. He found his mark with two kills while teammate Colby Kitagawa landed two aces as Punahou closed the first set with a 10-3 run.

Some of Punahou’s struggles were self-inflicted. The Buffanblu had four net violations and seven service errors in the second set, and added seven more service errors in the third.

“Physically, it was about how locked in we were. We were making defensive rotation mistakes we weren’t making in the first set. Serving errors, not going through our serving routines. We got a little tight because of it, started being individual. We didn’t really come together. This is a new group together — all the talent in the world, but they’ve got to play with the bright lights on and they did that tonight,” Tune said. “You saw it against Kamehameha, saw it against ‘Iolani. We just have to develop consistency. Their high is high, and they can be wobbly at times.”

On Friday, HBA hosts Kamehameha, while Punahou travels to ‘Iolani.