‘Scrappy’ Falcon Volleyball Team Faces Scrappy McKinley

Wednesday - September 03, 2008
By Jack Danilewicz
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Kalani senior Lindsay Nakamura volleys during a recent Falcon practice. Photo by Byron Lee, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

What the Kalani girls volleyball team may lack in “style points"this fall, the Falcons figure to make up for with their effort, to hear second-year head coach Janeen Waialae tell it.

“We have a small, scrappy, defensive-minded team,” said Waialae, who coached Kalani to an 10-8 overall mark in 2007 as well as a state tournament appearance. “We’re pretty good at ball control and at minimizing our mistakes.We won’t pound the ball necessarily, but we work on putting the ball in places where the defense is not.”

The Falcons, who opened their OIA Eastern Division schedule last Tuesday with a narrow loss to Kalaheo, return to action this week with games at 6 p.m. Thursday at McKinley and 11 a.m. Saturday at Moanalua. Under the league’s format, Kalani will play both of those teams at home later in the season, making this week’s game all the more important as Kalani looks to position itself favorably early-on in the race. They finished 8-5 in the league last season, which was good for third behind Roosevelt and Kahuku, and fifth in the OIA post-season tournament.


A return to that kind of success will largely depend on the play of returning veterans Tina Pulu, Chelsie Vea, Summer Thatcher-Taliva’a and Nicole Stenstrom and a talented group of underclassmen ready to make an immediate impact in their first season of varsity play.

“A lot of the girls that have come up from the JV have played club ball throughout the off-season, which we highly recommend,” Waialae said. “The more reps you can get, the more confident you become and the better your game will be.

“Right now, we’re trying to get the girls to trust each other and work together. They’re pretty good, but there are still a lot of new girls.”

All told, the Kalani roster features six seniors, three juniors, three sophomores and a freshman. Pulu leads the way from her outside hitter position, after earning First Team All-Conference honors last season through a post-season vote by league coaches.

“She brings intensity - she’s very competitive and probably one of our strongest hitters,” Waialae said. “She has that hunger to put it away - she wants the ball all of the time.


“She’s a good example for everyone else,“she added.“She has mental toughness. She doesn’t dwell on mistakes, and she likes to win.”

Vea, who will man the other outside hitter spot opposite Pulu, was an Honorable Mention choice in 2007 and is poised for a breakout junior year, according to her coach.

“She’s probably one of our better all-around players,“Waialae said. “She’s good defensively, and her passes are on the money. She plays volleyball year-round, which makes a big difference.”

Thatcher-Taliva’a and Stenstrom will play middle blocker and libero, respectively. “Summer’s energy gets everyone high and excited to play - she affects our team,” Waialae said of Thatcher-Taliva’a. “Nicole is probably the mother hen of the team. She works really hard, and we never have to worry about her as far as staying on track. We can depend on her to be very disciplined.”

In McKinley, Waialae sees an opponent not unlike her own team - at least in work ethic. “They’re very good - we played them in preseason,“she said.“They have a very scrappy team, and they minimize their errors.What we have to do is to show up.When we played them the first time, mentally we weren’t there. If we bring some enthusiasm and play our game, we’ll be fine.”

On the heels of Saturday’s match with Moanalua,the Falcons will play three more road games in succession - at Kahuku Sept. 9, at Roosevelt Sept. 11 and at Farrington Sept. 16.

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