HILO — Pahoa boys volleyball clinched its first island title since 2012 in the most thrilling way possible.
The Daggers found themselves in another tight battle with Ka‘u in Saturday’s BIIF DII Championship at Kea‘au High — trailing 2-1 after three sets (21-25, 25-16, 22-25). The Trojans were looking to close out the match in the fourth set, but Pahoa had other plans.
The Daggers escaped the fourth set 25-22 and won the decisive fifth frame 15-10 — officially becoming champions and ending an exciting back-and-forth rivalry between the two teams in 2026. Pahoa and Ka‘u were 1-1 against each other heading into the matchup, with both matches also going five sets.
But the memorable comeback wasn’t anything to sweat for the Daggers, as they had been in similar situations before. In the semifinals against HPA, they were down by as much as 12 in the second set — storming back to win.
Across the season, Pahoa has simply found different ways to win — whether that was by sweeping an opponent or taking a team all the way to the fifth set.
“They work hard,” Daggers head coach Ikaika Marzo told the paper of the comeback. “Getting those experiences played a big factor (in our success) this year.
“This was 14 years in the making. The accomplishment was awesome for the kids.”
Although Pahoa made the BIIF semifinals in 2025, the turnaround of the program into this year has been a complete 180. The Daggers went from 7-9 to 12-2 against the conference, sweeping their opponents seven different times. Stung by their playoff loss last season, the upperclassmen wanted redemption in 2026.
Marzo previosuly coached Pahoa from 2005-12, returning to the Daggers at the beginning of last season. He wanted to keep building the foundation set in 2025, and every player on the roster quickly bought in.
“The commitment from the kids from last year to this year was a key factor for us,” Marzo said. “We reconstructed the program and changed a lot of our system, and they bought in.”
Marzo also pointed to the depth of the team as a major factor in their success. The Daggers have five senior standouts leading the roster — Kyran Canete, Elima Antoque, Dayten Fujiyama, Ricky Abadilla and Kayden Tarrant. The remainder of the roster consists of juniors Tana Pa and Noel Shipp, sophomores Ryden Devaney, Chiprano Chipiuo, Kia‘i Kai Cloud and Kanoa Emsley and freshman Tytan Une.
“All of the kids played key roles and performed very well,” Marzo added. “Exceeded our expectations.”
Pahoa will represent the BIIF in next week’s DII state tournament as the island’s top seed. While the Daggers currently don’t know their seeding and first matchup (as of Tuesday afternoon), the champs plan to approach the challenge as they would for any other match.
While the pressure of staying alive will build, Pahoa plans to take it one match at a time.
“We have to keep working at practice and working on different scenarios,” Marzo said. “We have an idea of what we might be going up against since we played (outer-island competition) during our hosted volleyball tournament earlier this season — so we kind of know how we play (against state competition).
“We just have to take care of the ball.”
Despite falling late in the match, the Trojans will also join the Daggers on Oahu in the DII tournament. Their seeding and first matchup is also to be determined.
Ka‘u went 9-5 against the BIIF season, including signature wins against Pahoa, Parker School in the island semis and going 2-0 against the defending BIIF champion HPA. The Trojans won in sweeps five times.
Wildcats clinch DI crown
Konawaena boys volleyball made quick work of Kamehameha-91直播 during Saturday’s BIIF DI Championship, winning in straight sets — 25-17, 26-25 and 25-22. It was the third time in 2026 that the Wildcats swept the Warriors.
Kona has been outright dominant in their championship season, finishing 11-1 against the BIIF and is currently riding a seven-match win streak. The Wildcats have swept opponents eight times this season.
Kona redeemed itself from 2025, when the Wildcats lost to Hilo in four sets in the island championship. Some of their signature wins in 2026 include KSH, Waiakea, Kea‘au Hilo and Honoka‘a.
The Wildcats will be back in the DI state tournament, but the official seedings and matchups have yet to be released.
KSH will also join Kona in the state tourney after going 9-4 against the BIIF. The Warriors are expected to be the lower BIIF seed in the bracket.
Some of the Warriors’ key wins in 2026 were against Kea‘au, Hilo, Pahoa and Waiakea.
See Page 3B to see more images from last weekend’s matches.
