The champs are back in the final.

The unseeded ‘Iolani Raiders wasted little time getting there on Friday night, getting 18 kills from Saige Ka‘aha‘aina-Torres and 14 from Elena Oglivie in a 25-13, 25-6, 25-8 sweep of Kahuku in the semifinal round of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Girls Volleyball Division I State Championships.

‘Iolani (9-7), the Interscholastic League of Honolulu runner-up, will go for its third state championship tonight at Blaisdell Arena. Game time is 7 p.m.

A pensive crowd of about 500 at McKinley Student Council Gymnasium saw defending state champion ‘Iolani put on a clinic, hitting .390 with a dominant serve.

“We served well. It came down to serving and passing, and we got up some clean sets,” ‘Iolani coach Kainoa Obrey said.

‘Iolani had a 10-1 edge in aces, getting three apiece from Ka‘aha‘aina-Torres and Naya Dong, two from setter Kristen McDaniel, and one apiece from Grace Wee and Oglivie.

Kahuku (12-6), the fifth-place team from the Oahu Interscholastic Association, was a step slower and couldn’t sky quite as high less than 24 hours after upsetting No. 2 seed Moanalua.

It was a bad sign for Kahuku when Oglivie regularly blasted kills over double blocks in the opening set. McDaniel’s sets were sometimes up in the stratosphere, where Oglivie and Ka‘aha‘aina-Torres were unchallenged by Kahuku’s blockers.

Oglivie, a 6-foot sophomore, finished the first game with six kills.

‘Iolani led 13-11 before going on a 6-0 run, including three aces in a row by Dong.

Ana Kemoeatu interrupted ‘Iolani’s flow with a kill, but the Raiders then went on a 5-0 run and won the set going away.

The lone ‘Iolani senior, Ka‘aha‘aina-Torres, had five kills in the opening stanza, and then added four kills and two aces in the second. By then, Kahuku’s confidence was not the same.

“It’s definitely mental. When they took themselves out mentally midway through the first set, it was tough after that,” Kahuku coach Mounia Tachibana said. “But I’m proud of them for battling.”

Kahuku tried to counter ‘Iolani early on.

“They tried a little twist, 12 (Keaupunilani Kamakeeaina) and 11 (ShaLi Niu) came out in the front row in the first two sets,” Obrey noted.

But it didn’t matter much. ‘Iolani came after Kahuku’s big hitters. Oglivie, in particular, was a menace defensively at the net, though her statistics don’t show it. She also hustled for a team-high 12 digs. Ka‘aha‘aina-Torres added nine digs, McDaniel finished with 29 assists and four digs.

Lauolive Tonga had five kills, and Katelyn Erickson and Tonga chipped in three apiece to lead Kahuku. Niu had a team-high eight assists to go with two kills. Skyy Botelho had nine digs and Kamakeeaina had five.

Kahuku hit -.036, with 20 hitting errors.

Kamehameha 3, Kapolei 0

The top-seeded Warriors patiently dispatched the Hurricanes 25-18, 25-20, 25-23 to advance into the final. Kili Robins exploded for 15 kills, while Keonilei Akana added nine kills and Maile McClure tallied eight.

Middles Braelyn Akana (seven) and Kalina Obrey (four) had limited looks as the tall ‘Canes focused there defensively.

“They put us in a lot of bad spots. It came down to execution, for sure,” said Kamehameha coach Chris Blake, who has guided the Warriors to eight state titles.

Setter Lexis Akeo found her outside hitters consistently and finished with 39 assists and seven digs. Kamehameha’s defense limited Kapolei to .103 hitting and had 59 digs. Libero Kealani Ontai hustled for 19 digs, while Robins (eight), Keonilei Akana (eight), Akeo (seven) and Chloe Akiona-Banan (seven) helped solidify the back row.

Middle Michelyn Pilila‘au paced Kapolei (14-2) with 10 kills (.500).

Tihani Guzman added five kills and Anela Pakaki-Pias had four. Tiffany Mook sparked the back row with 11 digs. Setter Olivia Transfiguracion had 24 assists and seven digs. Guzman and Pakaki-Pias also tallied seven digs.

Kamehameha, the ILH champion, will face nemesis and ILH runner-up ‘Iolani in tonight’s final.

“ ‘Iolani is a great team. They’re strong defensive and offensively,” Robins said. “We’ve been training for this. This has been our goal since Day 1.”