Pikan Gaga takes volleyball crown

After cruising through the regular season with only a loss to mar their record, Pikan Gaga knocked off their nemesis by downing the She Devils in four sets in the women’s division championship of the Island Wide Volleyball League on Monday night on the south court of the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium.

Leaping Lorna Ogomuro led the charge for the Gaga girls as the stellar spiker combined for eight kills and an ace, while teammate Connie Camacho had five kills and a pair of laser serves from behind the line. The domination began early on in the first set when the Ogomuro and Camacho connection punished the Devils with six kills during the 25-18 win.

The trend continued into the second set when the duo was joined by a strong statement from Percy Torres on a power spike and Vanessa Mobel’s three unreturnable serves and one kill. Pikan Gaga had all of the momentum following their 25-20 win in the second, but the She Devils refused to go away in the best-of-five match-up by winning the third set in convincing fashion, 25-15.

Though inspiring, the win proved to be too little too late, as Pikan Gaga quickly blew out the lights on the She Devils’ comeback cake in the fourth set with a 25-23 nail-biting victory.

In the consolation game, the Dragons won easily during a sweep of Bootylicious that featured the talents of player/coach Aleta Glaze and the finishing ability of Becky “the Bomber” Covarrubias.

Glaze served up a trio of one-way salvos and delivered a powerful kill in the first set, while Rika Matsumoto “matsu-smashed” an ace in the 25-15 win. The second set featured more of the same as Glaze got on a roll from behind the line and Covarrubias served up with the final Dragon ball of the season.

On the other side of the Ada, the Chuukanos banded together with their fans, friend, and family to dethrone No Fear in three sets during the semifinal round of action in the men’s division.

After the first two sets left the two squads deadlocked at one apiece, a race to 15 points ensued for the right to advance to the championship round tonight opposite Ol’Aces. No Fear played inspired volleyball throughout, but the Chuukanos were not to be denied the win in the presence of their supporting group of onlookers.

When the final point was recorded, the roar of the crowd announced to everyone at the Oleai Sports Complex that something big occurred on the rubberized surface of the Ada floor.

“There’s no better team than No Fear, and they gave us a very good game. We had to play extra hard. In the first set we pulled together and said ‘This is our championship.’ We’re playing like it’s the championship game tonight—that’s it, no more looking back. No more looking back. Don’t think about the next game on Wednesday, go for broke tonight,” said Chuukanos coach Burtha Suda.