Things just seem to be getting easier for the Roosevelt girls volleyball team.
The Rough Riders fought through the loser’s bracket to sweep Leilehua 25-21, 25-20, 25-18 to become the first team to repeat as OIA White champion on Saturday at McKinley High School.
"It’s just the girls are playing the way they should and have gotten into a nice groove," Roosevelt coach Pete Velasco said. "Like anything, you go through little trials, but the girls got through them and turned the switch on at the right time."
Roosevelt, the second seed in the East, lost to Leilehua in four sets to fall into the loser’s bracket, but reeled off wins over Kalani, Radford and Leilehua to force Saturday’s deciding game. The Rough Riders needed four sets to beat the Mules in the rematch, but swept them out of the gym on Saturday.
Alida Holt led the way with 10 kills for Roosevelt and Jasmine Fujimoto added seven, two of 10 Rough Riders to find the floor.
"We try to distribute it. If we can spread it around, it makes it harder for people to defend," Velasco said. "We have been doing this more or less since we started, but now it has really just started to come together."
Fujimoto added four more aces to help her team to an 11-7 edge in that department. Leilehua’s Kayla Kilaulani earned all four of her aces in the first seven points but was silenced after Velasco called a timeout and adjusted, facing a 7-1 deficit. Roosevelt returned every serve except three the rest of the way.
Both teams move on to the state tournament beginning Wednesday at Kalani and Kaimuki. Roosevelt can expect the benefit of having a bye again this year, but needed four wins in five days to earn it. The Rough Riders didn’t do much with their bye in last year’s state tournament, losing to Hawaii Baptist in four before fighting back to take fifth place.
"It would be nice, I wouldn’t complain about having the first day off," Velasco said. "But it doesn’t really matter that much. We still have to come out and face the teams we are playing, just like everyone else."
