HONOLULU — Moanalua threw everything it had at its Interscholastic League of Honolulu opponent in the state tournament, got down, battled back, and collapsed in a delirious team dogpile when it finally overcame its foe in five rugged sets.
Na Menehune proved themselves worthy victors on Friday night. The caveat: It was against ILH runner-up Kamehameha, and it came by the slimmest of margins in the New City Nissan / HHSAA semifinals in Moanalua’s own gym.
Now the Oahu Interscholastic Association upstarts must do it again, against eight-time defending champion Punahou, and in the crucible of the Blaisdell Arena on Saturday night. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m.
In the aftermath of Friday’s 26-28, 25-21, 20-25, 25-20, 16-14 result, coach Alan Cabanting’s team believed anything was possible.
Senior hitter Keanu Kawaa threw his team on his back, particularly in Sets 4 and 5, as he put down 30 kills on a whopping 85 swings for the match, hitting .200 as the first, second, and third option for Na Menehune for long stretches. He sprayed shots from the back row again and again at his team’s behest.
Kawaa thinks he has a handle on what it will take for Moanalua (15-0) to beat the storied Buffanblu (15-0), who like every other team in the state are playing in their first state tournament in three years because COVID forced the cancelation of the 2020 and 2021 editions.
"It feels so amazing," Kawaa said. "I asked my team before we started up this (fifth) set if they can just help me and take all of our seniors to that championship match after the past two years, not able to have playoffs, (and the) state (tournament) because of COVID. I’m just speechless what my team just did for all of us."
He said he played with most of the Buffanblu's starting lineup in club ball all four years of high school, so "I feel like I know them very well," he said.
The last OIA school to win a state boys volleyball title was Roosevelt in 1979. The ILH has won all 40 editions of the top tier of state competition since that time.
Kamehameha (11-6) was snakebitten by injuries all year, particularly to its 6-foot-8 stud freshman, Kainoa Wade, who went out with a back injury in ILH play right after showing his promise with a 22-kill outing against Punahou. First-year coach Sava Agpoon still nearly guided the Warriors to their first state finals appearance since 2013.
Laiakeaoaloaliilani Hirahara led the Warriors with 16 kills while Heston Cabinian added 13 and Dylan Oliva 10.
“Hey, win with humility, lose with dignity. That’s all I said to them,” Agpoon said.
The Warriors appeared to have the upper hand at a couple of points. First, when they took a 2-1 sets lead on libero Harryzen Soares’ ace. Then, in Set 5, when they led 8-5 on consecutive double blocks by AyJa Miller and Dylan Friedl.
But Moanalua countered with an 8-2 run in the final frame that mostly involved outlasting Kamehameha until the Warriors made attack errors.
Na Menehune earned match point with Kawaa’s kill on a dish from setter Malu Wilcox, but needed to reset once Kamehameha staved off three match points to tie it at 14.
Soares, who amassed 24 digs, made a service error to give Moanalua its fourth match point, and this time Na Menehune made good with a kill by Keola DeMello.
“It was amazing. The guys, I believed in them the whole time,” Cabanting said. “We said if we play our best, we’ll be able to take care of it. We maintained our composure. As horrible as our serves were (one ace, 19 service errors), we were able to get back into it and side out as efficiently as we did.”
Christian Tafao had 13 kills for Moanalua as the primary relief for Kawaa.
Cabanting’s program challenged Punahou in the finals in 2018 and 2016. Both those times it went to the Buffanblu in straight sets.
“If they can take care, one, of the serve, and put them out of system, and then get Keanu going, I think it’s going to be a good battle,” Cabanting said.
Punahou owns 37 of the 51 boys volleyball titles at the highest level of state competition since the first year of official competition in 1969.
The Buffanblu dispatched Mililani 25-17, 25-15, 25-17 in Friday’s first semifinal at Moanalua. Coach Rick Tune estimated his team performed at “85% or 87%” of its potential. He and his staff hung around to watch the second match.
Keau Thompson led Punahou with 17 kills on 23 attempts, hitting .609 as his team hit .493 as a whole.
“You know, we’ll see,” he said of whether a similar effort would be good enough to win Saturday. “It’s hard to predict, but we love how we finished tonight. How we executed tonight. We knew after (Thursday) night (a quarterfinal win over Roosevelt) we had to be better and cleaner, and we played a much cleaner match tonight. Although there are some things we talked about that we need to get better at, still.”
In Division II action, third-seeded Seabury Hall and fourth-seeded Pearl City will meet for the title at 5 p.m. at the Blaisdell.
Pearl City, the OIA D-II champion, knocked off ILH D-II champion and top seed Saint Louis in four sets. Seabury, the MIL D-II champ, ousted Nanakuli in five sets.
If Pearl City prevails, it would be the OIA’s first boys volleyball title at the D-II level. Seabury won the MIL’s only state title in the sport in 2010, at the D-II level.
Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.