For the fifth year in a row, the Kahuku girls volleyball program has a new head coach.
Mounia Tachibana led the troops into Kekuhaupio Gym on the Kamehameha campus on Thursday, taking over for Lee Lamb.
Lamb went to Le Jardin after leading the Red Raiders into the state quarterfinals last year. He said he enjoyed his time at Kahuku but left voluntarily to spend more time with his 2 year-old daughter rather than driving to the North Shore five times a week.
Much like Vavae Tata and the football program, Tachibana will have plenty to work with at Kahuku. The Red Raiders have made the state tournament 14 years in a row, not missing out since 2000 and adding a state title in 2002 under Mona Ah Hoy, the last OIA school to take it all in girls volleyball.
Lamb took over for Tehani Fiatoa, who spent a year there before being asked to re-apply and refusing to do so. Camilla Ah-Hoy was the coach in 2012 and you have to reach back to 2010 and 2011 to Kaniela Kalama to find a coach who spent more than one year in charge.
Tachibana got her reign off to a good start on Thursday, leading Kahuku to a 2-0-1 record on the first day of the Hawaii Volleyball Invitational.
The Red Raiders swept Hawaii Baptist 25-22, 25-21 and Kamehameha-Blue 25-17, 22-25 and split with Kamehameha-Hawaii 25-15 and 23-25.
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