MILILANI, Hawaii — Too balanced, too motivated.
The Moanalua girls volleyball team channeled last year’s heartache in the Oahu Interscholastic Association championship into a devastatingly effective performance as Na Menehune turned away Kapolei, 25-23, 25-17, 22-25, 25-14 in the OIA Division I title match at Mililani High on Wednesday night.
Moanalua (13-0) completed an unbeaten run through the OIA for its sixth all-time league title, and first since 2017. It was the fourth under coach Alan Cabanting.
[Note: See below for more photos of the OIA girls volleyball championships.]
Earlier Wednesday, Castle defeated Farrington in four sets for the Knights’ first volleyball championship at any level in 35 years.
Cabanting acknowledged the many contributions of former star hitter Malu Garcia, now a freshman at Iowa, for his program the last few years. But he said his multi-faceted and experienced (nine-senior) lineup presented a whole different set of problems for opponents this year.
Zaria Queen and Jerney Tang-Silva supplied 17 kills apiece and setter/hitter Kaila Kalama-Bajet posted 11 kills, 26 assists and 12 digs.
“They did it as a team; not just one superstar. Everybody contributed at one moment in the match,” Cabanting said.
Na Menehune were assigned the No. 2 seed in the 12-team New City Nissan/HHSAA D-I championships that begin on Monday. They will face the winner of Waiakea and Kalaheo on Thursday at Kamehameha.
ILH champion Iolani received the top seed. Baldwin of the MIL is No. 3 and Kamehameha-Hawaii of the BIIF is No. 4.
“We wanted to ensure that, to match up with the ILH teams, we’ve got to be as balanced as we can be,” Cabanting said.
The ILH has won the last 20 HHSAA D-I titles. The OIA’s last girls state champion was Kahuku in 2002.
Moanalua’s balance contributed to a much different outcome than a sweep defeat to Mililani in 2023.
Queen agreed with her coach that an unpredictable offense was a big reason for the team’s success. But underpinning that was a sense of unfinished business, she said.
“Every day at practice we remembered that, and we’re like, ‘hey, that’s not happening this year. This title is ours,’” Queen said. “That really reflected in our practices. There was no time where we were slacking off. We were holding each other accountable to make sure that when we got to this, we could take care of business.”
Tang-Silva said there was a different level of mental focus throughout the season, for which she thanked her teammates.
“We all had that one goal in mind ever since last year,” Tang-Silva said.
Libero Natalie Fukumoto had 10 assists and 15 digs and middle Chloe Fukumitsu got in on four blocks.
Senior hitter Leila Paraoan put down 21 kills with a wide variety of shots to lead the Hurricanes (11-2), who saw their 11-match winning streak snapped and were denied their first OIA Division I title, and second at any classification.
Kapolei made an admirable stand in Set 3, but Moanalua refocused and led 9-3, 13-4 and 20-7 in a dominant fourth frame to extinguish any drama.
“We knew everybody really had to dig deep,” Paraoan said. “I wish we would’ve come out like the way we wanted to. We really played hard and tried our best. We just let the little things get to us.”
For the first time since 1989, the Castle Knights were worthy of an OIA girls volleyball championship.
Castle defeated Farrington, 25-15, 17-25, 25-15, 25-17, behind 19 kills from Trystin Lum and 17 from Emily Robins.
It was the Knights’ fourth title (1976, 1977, 1989) and first at the Division II level.
“It feels great to bring this level of play back to the Windward side,” Knights first-year varsity coach George Ehia said. “Back in the 80s, I believe Castle dominated back then. So it was nice to have this bunch of girls bring it finally back, because it’s been a long break, a long hiatus for us.”
Ehia said he gave his hitters a season-long diet of out-of-system balls in practice. It showed on Wednesday for the Knights (8-4), who shrugged off three straight losses to OIA East Division I teams before the playoffs.
“Even though he emphasizes serving, he still harps on us on out of system,” said Lum, one of the Knights’ nine seniors. “‘Hitters place it smart’ when the out-of-system set comes to us. Our lib (Rylie Matsuda), she’s amazing at our out-of-system setting. She puts the ball where it needs to be and she doesn’t give the hitters a problem with messing up our footsteps.”
Matsuda had 21 digs and four assists in support of setter Lehiwa Kapu (41 assists, four aces, seven digs).
Farrington coach Raymond Patcho lauded his old 1988 Govs classmate Ehia and what he harnessed.
“They’re big. They’ve got seniors. I’ve seen them,” Patcho said. “A lot of them played varsity all four years. The best thing they did is have George as the leader. George changed all their mentality, their offense and they looked wonderful out there.”
Abelyn Toloai put down 13 kills to lead the Govs (6-7).
The HHSAA Division II bracket has yet to be announced.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.