Moanalua volleyball is fundamental volleyball and that trait comes in mighty handy now that former Na Menehune superstar Austin Matautia is making his mark with the University of Hawaii squad.

Nowadays, according to head coach Alan Cabanting, the whole team must step up to replace Matautia’s awe-inspiring presence.

And so far, so good. Moanalua swept visiting Kaiser 25-13, 25-18 on Wednesday night to improve to 4-0 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association East. Na Menehune’s bid for a seventh straight league championship is alive and well.

“This year, there truly is no one standout, so everybody has to make a play and support the team and make contributions somehow,” Cabanting said.

Zackary Miyamoto, a setter and a hitter, has eased into a leadership role.

“He has taken that on to ensure that everybody is involved somehow,” Cabanting said about Miyamoto, who led Na Menehune with five kills and 10 assists.

Kaiser’s communication on defensive positioning was lacking. Exactly 20 percent of Moanalua’s points (10) came via the ace, an unusual stat at the high school level. Kalai Leopoldo had three of those aces in a row to go along with his four kills. Nalu Demello and Brayden Batungbacal added two aces each.

It didn’t help the Cougars’ cause that Na Menehune came out on fire in the first set and grabbed a 16-6 lead before Kaiser (2-2) recorded any kills.

“We were just really scared, going into the match knowing that Moanalua is such a great team defensively and skill-wise and that they have all the basic fundamentals,” said 6-foot-4 Kaiser junior hitter Jon Stanley — the son of Cougars head coach and former Olympian Jon Stanley. “I think that was a little intimidating for us. Being scared is never a good way to start a match and I think that was our problem.”

Said coach Stanley, “Moanalua is a very good team that knows how to play. We don’t know how to play yet; that’s a big difference. Once we can get better at it and make adjustments on the floor, we’ll be better.”

In the first set, Miyamoto’s kill on a Kylan Tomita (seven assists) set got Na Menehune to 24-13 and they went up 1-0 when the Cougars’ Hi‘ialo Copp’s kill attempt hit the antenna.

Moanalua’s serving machine cranked up in the second set, where it recorded seven of those 10 aces, including Leopoldo’s three straight followed soon after by two in a row from Batungbacal.

Still, despite an early 9-2 deficit, Kaiser fought back and played much more soundly overall. The Cougars’ best run came near the end of the match. Down 24-14, they won four straight points on a kill and a block from Jacob Summers and a block by Brandon Yasuo.

Bhrycen Asuncion ended it with a kill on Miyamoto’s set.

“In the first set, we played our game,” Moanalua’s Cabanting said. “We took care of what we needed to take care of and we got the right matchups. We had a big block on Jon (the younger Stanley) and so his first two hits got blocked. One of them was straight down, so we were able to get into his head a little bit from the get-go.”