When Hawai‘i’s high school sports seasons got shuffled around last summer, boys volleyball was one sport that I thought might fly under the radar.

Most of the discussion/debate, of course, centered around girls basketball and softball. Not much attention was paid to boys volleyball, and I wondered if it was because the sport has a much smaller following than the other two. When it was played the same season as the girls, it got less attention than the girls and I wondered if it might get even more lost when thrown in against baseball and softball.

But at least at Punahou and ‘Iolani, I can assure you that boys volleyball is as popular as ever, especially when these two teams are playing each other.

In their first meeting on April 12, I was surprised to see about 800 people in Hemmeter Fieldhouse, including the pep band from each school. There were even more people, about 950, in attendance for Friday night’s rematch at ‘Iolani.

Most of the ‘Iolani fans — including the band — wore black, and they showed up in force.

The Buffanblu’s big early leads in games 1 and 2 kept the crowd relatively quiet, but when the Raiders rallied from down 21-10 to 24-23, many of the screaming fans were on their feet and the place was rocking.

“This environment is the best in the whole state of Hawai‘i,” said Punahou senior Jeremy Kaimikaua, who led the Buffanblu with eight kills and seemed to feed off the crowd energy. “They have die-hard fans and when the crowd got into it, the emotion was unbelievable.”

Punahou coach Rick Tune said it’s an atmosphere his players should cherish.

“It’s a small gym, but it’s a loud gym and the atmosphere is great for volleyball,” Tune said. “For our players, if they’re lucky, they get to play here four times.”

On the court, the two teams put on a highly skilled and entertaining display of volleyball. The Buffanblu looked unbeatable for much of the match, with very impressive depth along the front line. Their hitters came in waves … Kaimikaua, Maddison McKibbin, Erik Shoji, Kaiwi Crabbe, Henry Cassiday … the blocks were there … Shoji also made some great sets … Marcus Miyabara had 10 digs.

But ‘Iolani’s Brad Lawson again rose to the challenge, despite playing with a sore right (hitting) wrist that cast his status in doubt all the way until first serve. He didn’t even start, coming in off the bench with the Raiders trailing 7-5.

But Lawson still finished with a match-high 15 kills, soaring high and firing rockets down into the Punahou defense.

“Brad is one of the best players in the nation, so you’re not really going to stop him,” Kaimikaua said. “We just tried to serve him tough, make him move and slow him down.”

Tune tried to slow ‘Iolani’s comeback with two timeouts, imploring his troops to stay aggressive.

“We made some adjustments,” Tune said. “I told them they have to go out and take it, because (the Raiders) are not going to give it to you. They’re not going to sit back and roll over.”

‘Iolani coach Mike Among said his team showed its potential during that last run, but added it takes more than one good run to knock off the Buffanblu.

“I told our boys they didn’t have to play perfect to beat Punahou, they just have to be more consistent,” Among said. “The really good teams are consistent and efficient, and we’re not that right now. We play good in spurts, but we also give away points in spurts, and that’s not going to get it done against Punahou.”

When the Raiders were down 21-10, Among said he encouraged his players to focus on their execution and not the score.

“I pointed to the scoreboard and said they were worrying too much about that instead of what they were doing on the court,” Among said. “I told them to play like there’s no scoreboard, and they started to be more loose and started making plays, digging the ball more. We played everybody, and a lot of them stepped up.”

Punahou had already secured a state tournament berth by winning the first round, and the Buffanblu now have the inside track to claim the overall championship. But they learned Friday night that victories still must be earned, no matter the lead.

“They learned a big lesson,” Tune said. “But it’s better to learn that now so we can correct it before the state tournament.”

Kaimikaua said any game against ‘Iolani can seem like a state title match.

“They’re our rival, and any time we play each other both teams are going to bring their best,” he said. “Any game we play against each other is going to be great to watch.”

Last night’s sure was.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 26th, 2008 at 12:50 am and is filed under Prep Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.