Forget red and white, the Farrington girls volleyball team might be as good as any team in the Oahu Interscholastic Association.
The unranked Governors beat No. 3 Moanalua 25-21, 18-25, 15-13 on Tuesday night at home. Moanalua is the class of the OIA Red, while Farrington is in the supposedly lesser OIA White.
But the White wasn’t taking a back seat to anyone on Tuesday.
"I told the girls before that we could do this," Farrington coach Reagan Agena said. "We have been playing some quality volleyball, but we had a rough week (including a loss to Roosevelt), so this will do a lot for us."
Senior Trinity Alualu dominated Na Menehune early and Penina Faumui took over late to hand Moanalua its first league loss. Libero Fuatino Manu controlled the middle for the Governors, digging up almost every kill attempt by Moanalua.
With the third set deadlocked at 11-all, Alualu hit long to give Moanalua the advantage. She didn’t give Na Menehune anything else the rest of the way, drilling her 11th kill to tie it and, after a violation by Moanalua, dumping her 12th kill to the floor to give her team a 14-12 advantage.
Jenna Park put down a kill to give Moanalua hope, but Faumui rose over the center of the net and pounded her fourth kill of the set through a double-block and started celebrating before she returned to Earth.
"(Faumui’s) just hungry, she is an animal," Agena said. "We don’t care who gets the ball as long as we are in system, but we all believe when the ball goes to her."
Alualu got Moanalua’s attention in the first set, putting down six of Farrington’s 11 kills and helping the Governors lead wire to wire. Farrington grew its lead as big as eight before Moanalua trimmed it to two late, 23-21. But Alualu dented the floor once and watched Marina Adolpho hit into the net to end it.
"We just couldn’t get a block on her," Moanalua coach Tommy Lake said. "She just kept going over out blocks. They have two powerful outside hitters and they brought more energy than us tonight."
Moanalua dominated the second set as much as Farrington dominated the first, running up an eight-point lead and fending off a Farrington comeback. But the Governors regrouped to win the first four points of the third set.
"It was a lot of hard work and a lot of belief," Agena said. "We have had a couple of tough years, and those landed us in the White. Kids not completely understanding the system. It looks pretty good now, though."
Na Menehune, who dropped a game behind Kahuku in the Red East, won’t have much time to fix their problems. They play Roosevelt on Thursday. Farrington travels to Kalani the same day.