Castle wins first OIA girls volleyball championship in 35 years

MILILANI — The drought is over.

Castle won its first OIA girls volleyball title since 1989 after besting Farrington in four sets Wednesday night in the league’s Division II championship match.

Seniors Trystin Lum and Emily Robins put down 19 and 17 kills respectively to help the Knights (8-4) come away with a 25-15, 17-25, 25-15, 25-17 victory for the team’s fourth OIA crown in school history.

It was a championship run that was fueled by a senior class of nine players that came up short to eventual OIA champion Waialua in the playoffs the past two seasons.

“We didn’t want to let down and we knew that we’ve been fighting for this the past three years and every year we came up short and we knew that this was our year to take it,” senior setter Lehiwa Kapu said. “It feels amazing because we’ve been fighting for this for three years and we finally became D2 champions.”

Kapu finished with 41 assists, seven digs, four aces, two kills and a block to earn HSRN’s “Grinder of the Game” award, which is presented by Timmy T’s Gourmet Sandwich Shop.

She also was the server during a 15-0 run in a pivotal third set that allowed Castle to go from a 12-8 deficit to a 23-12 advantage.

“I think that I knew that I had to get us back up and I concentrated. I just fought for my team and we won the (third) set,” Kapu said. “I think that we knew that we wanted it. We had a lot of energy and then the second set we just kind of let down, but we got back up from there.”

The Knights’ championship run was also in George Ehia’s first year as the varsity head coach. He helmed the school’s White Division team a year ago.

Lum, who is committed to play for the University of Hawai’i at Hilo, talked about the improvement of the team with Ehia in charge.

“He pushes us every day at practice,” said Lum, who took a match-high 47 swings. “We run a lot, we do a lot of conditioning, we play a lot and we scrimmage, so I think we were set up for this and it just made us a whole lot better and especially for our seniors — we got nine seniors on the team — so it made us make our imprint.”

It wasn’t just the seniors getting involved for the Knights.

Junior libero Rylie Matsuda dazzled in the back row with a match-high 21 digs with four assists and an ace. Lum spoke highly of Matsuda after the match.

“She’s amazing. She’s amazing at our out-of-system setting,” Lum said of Matsuda. “She puts the ball where it needs to be and she doesn’t give the hitters a problem with messing up our footsteps and getting our approach right.”

The Governors (6-7) were led by Abelyn Toloai’s 13 kills and 11 digs in the loss.

Both Farrington and Castle, along with third-place finisher Pearl City, will represent the OIA in next week’s New City Nissan/HHSAA Division II State Championships.

The Knights swept the Govs when the teams met in the regular season back on Sept. 16 in Kaneohe.

Farrington was seeking its 11th OIA championship and first since 2015.