Volleyball Closes Season in No. 3

It was a long week of volleyball for the Molokai High School Lady Farmers at the Maui Interscholastic League (MIL) Division II Championships at Seabury last week. On Tuesday, Molokai claimed the No. 3 seed for the MIL D-II tournament by beating Lanai 25-22, 25-16, 25-12. The Farmers and Pine Lasses both finished the regular season at 5-5, forcing a playoff to determine third and fourth place in the standings.

The rest of the tournament brought mixed success for the Farmers.

On Wednesday in the quarterfinal, Molokai defeated Maui Prep 25-7, 25-8, 22-25, 25-8 to advance to the semifinals against Hana. During the semifinal on Thursday, Hana defeated Molokai 25-12, 25-17, 25-21 to end the Lady Farmers season.

“It’s been a great season,” said Coach Mahea Rawlins. “Although things didn’t work out the way we planned we did fight until the end.”

In the D-II final last Friday, Seabury Hall defeated Hana 25-20, 25-14, 26-24 to complete a perfect season. Seabury and Hana will represent Maui County in the 2015 New City Nissan Girls Volleyball Championships this week in Honolulu.

Rawlins had many positive comments about her team this year.

“We have a very young team which makes it very exciting for upcoming years,” she said. “Our two seniors were leaders to the team. Juniors were great assets to our team. Sophomore players picked up many kills throughout the season. Lastly, our freshmen… did a very good job in adjusting to a higher level of volleyball.”

Rawlins is also excited for the future of the program.

“As for next season I am very excited to see what’s in storage for our Lady Farmers,” she added. “We’ve got volleyball expanding on island with the start of club volleyball soon and many talented players on island.”

Rawlins said she knows the competition will still be tough but is confident that her team is moving in the right direction.

“Many of MIL DII teams still will have key players, so we’ll need to keep working hard to get a ticket to the state tournament. Next season we will have to work harder and have more determination and sense of urgency.”

Players, coaches and supporters have a lot to be proud of this season.