Chaminade Girls Volleyball Season Recap

After the Viewpoint High School Patriots defeated the Chaminade High School Eagles in straight sets on Thursday, the girls volleyball team’s season came to a close. This year, the girls managed to turn some heads around as they won eight games after winning just seven total in the past two seasons. This season marked the Eagles’ first trip to the playoffs since 2012 and was widely viewed as a successful year amongst those close to the program. According to senior Carolena Davidorf, the girls were helped greatly by a change in coaching staff. She felt that they needed to clean house after so much losing in the past two seasons.

There has been an undeniable change in culture in the program since bringing in coach Pono Nu’uhiwa. This has been a team that has struggled to make the playoffs in years past and the taste of so many losing seasons is certainly very fresh. “Trying to overcome all of the losses from the past two years was extremely difficult for us,” said Davidorf. “We didn’t believe that we could win at all at first, few people had faith at all. Once we won a game, we started to believe in ourselves.” 

Even though Chaminade failed to finish at .500 this season, the Eagles always had their sights set on making it to the playoffs. All it took was a convincing 3-0 win over Immaculate Heart to begin league play to sprung the Eagles’ momentum. From there, they battled through a rugged Sunshine League to sneak into the playoffs.  

It’s fair to say that the future is bright for this young team. This is a close-knit group of girls that Davidorf called “a sisterhood.” Losing just three players to graduation, there will certainly be a lot to build on for coach Nu’uhiwa, the former assistant coach at perennial Hawaii state championship contender Punahou School. The program rebuild is far from complete, but if the returners can build upon the teachings of Nu’uhiwa and Davidorf’s sisterhood mindset, there is no reason to believe that the Eagles can’t raise a banner in the Uribe Sports Center in the near future. 

—Conner Hoyt