Volleyball Top 10: No. 1 Kamehameha now has to wait for the state
Oct. 31—ILH champion Kamehameha garnered all 10 first-place votes to remain at No. 1 in the Star-Advertiser Girls Volleyball Top 10 this week.
ILH champion Kamehameha garnered all 10 first-place votes to remain at No. 1 in the Star-Advertiser Girls Volleyball Top 10 this week.
The first eight teams in the coaches and media poll stayed put.
Kapolei opened the season at No. 10, eventually dropping out and re-entering two more times. The Hurricanes are at No. 9 this week after reaching the OIA semifinal round. Their highest ranking was No. 8 on Aug. 14.
Kamehameha missed the state tournament last year for the first time in 20 seasons. Coach Chris Blake has the Warriors' 13-day gap planned out meticulously, as usual.
"We try to keep it fresh. We are looking to continually improve and challenge the team to refine and execute our skills. It provides an opportunity to process and time to review technical skills and to add the wrinkles in order to make our team better everyday, " he said. "We also have connected with other ILH Division II teams to have joint practices to get someone else into our gym to provide different looks."
The state tournament was pushed back by a week to secure a larger venue after facilities in Honolulu became unavailable. The championship day of the New City Nissan /HHSAA Girls Volleyball State Championships will be played at Cannon Activities Center on the BYU-Hawaii campus.
The final of the boys volleyball state tournament was held there last spring. So were the state wrestling championships. Both events filled the arena.
For the top three girls volleyball teams in ILH Division II, the wait between regular season and the state tourney is almost an eternity : more than three weeks. Because the ILH's top three D-II teams automatically qualified for the state tournament, they did not play in the league playoffs. League champion Mid-Pacific last played on Oct. 12, sweeping University in a tiebreaker match for the title.
The D-II state bracket begins on Nov. 6, but MPI has a bye and does not play until Nov. 8. That is a break of 27 days. University and Damien begin action on Nov. 6, a break of 25 days.
"It's tough. I've never seen anything like this, " University coach and athletic director Walt Quitan said. "We were playing well at the end of the (ILH ) season. Everyone else is in their playoffs. Four weeks off, it's almost like a whole new season. Moving the state tournament back a week because of venue, that's something that couldn't be helped."
