PLAY AS ONE, WIN AS ONE – Pearl City Chargers head to DII Volleyball Championship with 3-1 semifinal win over St. Louis

May 7, 2022 | PC Sports

The Pearl City Chargers earned their way to play for the 2022 HHSAA State Division II Volleyball Championship against Seabury after defeating a talented and tough St. Louis team in the championship semifinals 25-21, 25-15, 22-25, 28-26 last night at Kalani High School. Seabury defeated Nanakuli in five sets 22-25, 20-25, 25-21, 25-12, and 15-12 to advance to the championship.

The Chargers have played inspiring volleyball all season and so far in the championship tournament beginning with Thursday night’s 5 set, come from behind victory over Konawaena in the quarterfinals followed by Friday night’s semifinal four set victory over the top rated ILH opponent St. Louis Crusaders where the Chargers stepped up their game and played as one for the victory.

Everyone did their part with each victory. Senior Charger leadership led the way with skilled, inspiring, and memorable game winning performances. Fati Seei-Tofi matched his 24 kill performance against Konawaena with another 24 kill performance against the Crusaders. Fati also played stellar defense that made a huge impact and contribution in the Chargers victory. Fati recorded 2 assists and 3 digs to add to his 24 kills and 2 aces; Keahi Kaneakua scored 16 kills. Pearl City setter Christian Ronquilio recorded an outstanding 60 assists in the Chargers four set victory. Wow!

Andrew Muragin led the Crusaders with 15 kils.

I caught up with Charger Head Coach Sean Chang and Charger superstar outsider hitter Fati Seei-Tofi as they were leaving the court following last night’s semifinal victory.

Chargers Head Coach Sean Chang

“Words can’t describe the feeling right now. It’s such a great feeling. It’s something that we have just been wanting and chasing after and to finally get it, I can’t put it into words. Tonight, I think in general our team just found a spark and we just ran with it. We were able to play well off of that. Fati played unreal tonight. I don’t know his stats, but I know he got a lot of kills and I know he made a lot of plays and got a lot of digs for us. He played great defense for us. He did it all for us tonight. I’m super proud of him.”

Fati Seei-Tofi

“I just feel like we all did our jobs super well tonight, just keeping everything moving. Yesterday we played individually, but today we actually played as a team and that’s why we were able to win against such a tough team. Tonight I just wanted to do my job and I saw everybody trying their best to do their own. I just wanted to do my part.”

The Chargers will get a chance at bringing home a state championship tonight when they hit the Blaisdell Arena court at 5:00pm to take on the Seabury Hall Spartans of the MIL.