CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Kadena might just make it a clean sweep of the Okinawa Activities Council fall sports crowns.

Starting last Friday, when the Panthers wrapped up the best-of-three football series, Kadena has won four titles.

On Tuesday, Kadena’s volleyball team, led by Aja’ Walker, outlasted the Dragons 25-17, 17-25, 25-19, 26-24, rallying from a 24-19 fourth-set deficit to win the season series 3-2.

The Panthers shared the cross-country boys team championship, tying Kubasaki 28-28, while Kadena’s girls drilled the Dragons 19-45. In so doing, Kadena’s Brant Casteel and Chasity Cordova finished the season unbeaten.

Then on Thursday, sophomores Kyle Sprow and Elissa Mason captured the tennis singles titles — beating teammates Elliot Mason and Katie Mundie in the process. The Masons won the OAC mixed doubles crown a week earlier.

Only the doubles tournament is yet to be played.

“We bring out the best in each other,” Kadena tennis coach and athletics director Robert Bliss said of the rivalry between the schools. “It’s usually very competitive. What fun would it be if one school or the other was clearly dominant?”

Kubasaki volleyball coach Chris Kelly feels one school’s domination is “cyclical. Teams will have ups and downs, and right now, Kadena is on an up.”

“It’s worked out that way for us this fall,” Bliss agreed.

A combination of new blood and veteran stars have contributed to Kadena’s run, Bliss said.

Football benefitted from the PCS plane in the form of Ernest Carr (307 yards, four touchdowns, 35 carries), Roosevelt Payne and Vince Coronado.

“To get that type of talent was really fortunate … a real bonus,” Bliss said.

While Casteel defended his OAC championship, clocking the Kishaba Housing Area course in 16 minutes, 29 seconds, “Chasity came out of nowhere,” Bliss said of Cordova, who ran a 19:46, the only girls runner to break 20 minutes this season.

Sprow needed two matches to outlast Elliot Mason in the double-elimination tournament, winning 6-2 to force a second final match, which Sprow won 6-4. Elissa Mason defeated Mundie 6-0.

Trailing 24-19 in the fourth set of Tuesday’s volleyball rubber match, coach Greg Rosenberger called a timeout and instructed setter Alexis Youngerin to “set Aja’.” She scored five of her 14 kills to help rally the Panthers to victory.

“Trailing … and being able to not only get back into the fourth set with our backs to the wall but to win the set and hence the match was a feat to behold,” Rosenberger said.

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