Le Jardin has come a long way in the past two seasons and is one victory from taking hold of a second straight Division II crown in the New City Nissan/HHSAA Girls Volleyball State Championships.
Freshman Nive Tuileta had 32 assists, senior Julia Fisher smashed 16 kills and No. 6 Le Jardin swept Nanakuli 25-17, 25-18, 25-7 in the semifinals Friday night at St. Francis School.
Now, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu D-II champion Bulldogs get a rematch against unseeded Hawaii Baptist in an all-ILH final tonight at Blaisdell Arena. A year ago, the Bulldogs downed the Eagles in four sets for their first state crown.
Coach Lee Lamb is not looking past Hawaii Baptist, which knocked off Damien in a late five-set semifinal Friday night.
“They have experience and they’ve been there before,” he said about the Eagles, who won their fourth state D-II championship in 2015.“They play great defense and whenever we play them it’s a battle.”
For two sets on Friday against the Oahu Interscholastic Association D-II champion and fourth-seeded Golden Hawks (7-7), it was a war that the top-seeded Bulldogs (15-1) managed to get through. In the third, it was all Le Jardin.
The second set was especially grueling for both sides. There were nine ties and eight lead changes before the Bulldogs began to pull away for good on Danielle Miranda-Johnson’s ace that made it 13-11. The small lead fluctuated between two and three points until kills from Natalie Piper and Halle Hetzler and an ace by Fisher boosted the lead to five, 21-16, and Le Jardin finished it up from there for a two-set lead.
Lamb expected that inspired effort from the Golden Hawks, who got a team-high 10 kills from Janae Odom.
“They served tough and that put pressure on us,” he said. “They did a great job defensively and generated a lot of opportunities and that kept us off of our game a little bit. They scrapped.”
In the third, Tuileta’s seven-point service run, which included three of her four aces, allowed Le Jardin to sprint out to leads of 7-0, 11-2 and 18-6. Tuileta also had a four-point service run later in the set. Fellow freshman Ellie Diersbock came off the bench and chipped in big-time with two blocks and two kills. Fisher and Hetzler ended the match with two kills apiece for the final four points.
“The passers really put me in good position to set all of our very good attackers,” Tuileta said. “We stayed in system all the time and that gave us the opportunity to have three hitters open all the time. We remained level-headed and were always in the moment.”
The season is over for Nanakuli, but coach Junius Wong knows that an upset was a bit out of reach.
”It felt like we were playing the defending D-II state champs and they demonstrated why they are the defending D-II champs,” Wong said. “We prepared our girls the best we could, but unfortunately we couldn’t get it done tonight.”
Hawaii Baptist 3, Damien 2
The Eagles fought back from a set down to beat the Monarchs 25-18, 25-27, 15-25, 25-15, 15-6 in the second semifinal at St. Francis.
Hawaii Baptist (13-4) dominated the fifth set and will make a return trip to the D-II state final tonight against league foe Le Jardin. A year ago, those same two teams played in the final, with the Bulldogs winning in four.
Kallie Langford put down 22 kills for Hawaii Baptist, which is going for a fifth D-II state championship. Damien (13-7) got 24 kills from Shelby Capplonch.
