Hurricanes Enter State Tournament

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Kapolei High’s Ashlie Salas-Selem focuses on her
game. Photo by Byron Lee, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

With three games in three days, the Local Motion Girls State Water Polo Championships look more like a marathon rather than a sprint.

The post-season grind doesn’t intimidate Kapolei, however. If anything, the format could be a good thing for the Hurricanes, whose roster is dominated with players who are experienced swimmers.

“Our strength is our swimming,” Kapolei coach Dexter Lee said.“It’s to our benefit to get the other team swimming a lot. We’re able to get through that a little better. We’ll be there conditioning-wise. Hopefully, that will contribute to our eliminating any third- or fourth-quarter lapses.”

The Hurricanes, who are making their third straight appearance in the state tournament, took part in the Oahu Interscholastic Association’s post-season over the weekend, leaving them with nearly a week to regroup before this Thursday’s first-round state tournament encounter. In a sense, the state championships can’t come quickly enough for the Hurricanes,who built momentum steadily over the final weeks of their regular season and finished with an 11-2 record. Kapolei’s only two losses came to four-time OIA champion Kahuku and Roosevelt, which has been the league’s runner-up every year since the sport was sanctioned by OIA in 2003.

“We’re definitely peaking at the right time,” said Lee. “Our two leaders - Nicole (Hagi) and Ashlie (Salas-Selem) - have taken their games to a different level, and that has brought everyone else’s game up. Team leadership is important.

“Those two lead by example,” he added. “They’re able to put everything aside and just concentrate on water polo when they’re at practice and in the games. It gets harder and harder as it (the season) goes and you have to get focused for the games.”

Hagi entered the weekend having scored 54 goals on the year. She accounted for four of Kapolei’s seven tallies in the Hurricanes’OIA first-round playoff win over Mililani last week. Alexandra Jamora (22) and Salas-Selem (29) also rate among the OIA’s scoring leaders.

In all, the Hurricanes had scored 136 goals heading into the weekend,an average of 6.1 per outing. Those totals can be attributed in part to Kapolei’s ability to play at a fast pace.

“We’re run and gun,” said the coach.

Pairings for the state tournament, which will run Thursday through Saturday at Central Oahu Regional Park, were to be released over the weekend.Lee sees more balance this year. Although the ILH has won all three state titles since 2003, the OIA has bridged the talent gap, in Lee’s view.

“With Kahuku, Roosevelt, Leilehua and us (qualifying) this year, the OIA will have the strongest group of teams we’ve sent to the state tournament. (Kahuku coach) Aukai (Ferguson) and (Roosevelt coach) Sue (Nishioka) are the cornerstones of our league. They do a lot of off-season clinics, and they’ve (inspired) more people to play at a better level. Aukai has a model for us to follow.”