Moanalua solidifies spot on top of OIA East volleyball

The order of operations in OIA East boys volleyball remained ingrained Thursday night.

Moanalua turned back Kaiser repeatedly in a 26-24, 25-22 road victory at the Cougars’ gym, settling a duel of teams with 7-0 league records coming into the night.

Moanalua’s three-man swing gang of Kalai Leopoldo (15 kills), Kainoa Ferguson (eight) and Max Slaughter (five) accounted for all but three of Na Menehune’s kills. Now Moanalua, as has been the custom in recent years, has the inside track to the East’s top seed in the OIA playoffs in a couple of weeks.

“We were able to get all three of them swinging and they all swung really well,” Moanalua coach Alan Cabanting said. “The other thing, too, is we were able to take care of our serves. We struggled a little bit with it at the onset and we started to get our location, and keep it in.”

Na Menehune, who won six straight OIA titles until being unseated by Mililani last spring, underwent a reshuffling of roles coming off their appearance in the Best of the West preseason tournament. Caleb Casinas, a three-year middle, was converted to libero, and Cole Fukumitsu, an outside last year, became a setter this season. Fukumitsu, a junior, had 21 assists Thursday.

“It felt really good, Cole setting everybody,” said Leopoldo, who put away both sets on assists from Fukumitsu. “He recognized where all the (hitters) are.”

Middle Duncan Clark was in on four timely blocks.

Kaiser’s veteran coach, Jon Stanley, noted Moanalua represented a step up in competition from the rest of the league schedule to that point. The teams have three regular-season matches remaining before playoff time, and likely wouldn’t encounter each other again until a theoretical championship matchup.

“We were chasing them most of the night,” Stanley said. “We had some good runs, we caught up, the guys played really hard when the pressure was on, and that was good.

“That’s a really good serving team and pretty good passing team. So that’s the key, that might be the difference.”

Kaiser trailed 24-19 in Set 1, rallied to tie it at 24, then gave up consecutive points on kills by Ferguson and Leopoldo, the latter of whom tooled a shot off the block.

“For five years now, we’ve been battling them, every year, either in the states or OIAs,” said Stanley, who praised his team’s play at the net. “It’s our turn. It’s our turn to win one.”

Moanalua held Kaiser’s star player, Jon Stanley, to five kills. The coach said his son appeared fatigued as a result of a late study session and was hopeful for a more explosive outing next time.

Jacob Summers led the Cougars with seven kills, while Dylan Poon added four kills, two blocks and an ace in the loss.