Chargers Volley For Playoff Spot
By Jack Danilewicz
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When the Pearl City girls volleyball team opened fall camp back in July, the youthful Chargers may have seemed a year away on paper from re-entering the high-rent district of Island volleyball.The Chargers themselves never got the memo, however.
“It’s exciting to know what our future looks like, but I always tell the girls you can’t start playing (at a high level) as a senior,“said coach Stephanie Shigemasa.“You have to play every year as if it’s your last year, even though you’re young.”
The Chargers lost only one player to graduation from last season and will have all but two members of their current team back in the fold for 2009, but they have set their sights on the coming weeks as the time to leave their mark.Pearl City, which was to close out its OIA Red West schedule Oct. 7 against Campbell, has been one of the league’s best teams down the stretch.They won four in a row and five of their last six games heading into last Saturday’s meeting with conference leader Aiea.
Starting today, the Chargers - 7-2 overall in the West at press time - and their fellow OIA-qualifiers will begin a nine-day layoff before the league’s post-season begins Oct. 16.For their part,the Chargers consider the impending layoff a mixed bag.
“It can work both ways,” Shigemasa said. “The good thing is that it gives us time to work on things.The bad thing is that it’s hard to go without playing a game. It’s a mental challenge for us.”
The top two teams in the West earn first-round byes in the playoffs, so a lot was riding on Pearl City’s last two regular-season games. Pairings and final outcomes aside, Shigemasa and Co. are focusing in on fine-tuning their own play.
“We’re improving every game, and that’s the main thing,“she said. “Personality-wise, it’s a good group of girls who work hard every practice. I’ve enjoyed coaching them. We’re a young team, and next year we’ll still be a young team, so hopefully that experience will help us.
“Once the playoffs start, everyone is 0-0 again,“she added.“It will come down to the team that wants it the most.You never know (who will finish first).”
The team’s defense-first emphasis remains intact as it looks ahead to the OIA playoffs. The top five teams from league’s post-season earn bids to the Division I State Volleyball Tournament, which will take place Nov. 5-8 at the Stan Sheriff Center.
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