Pearl City claims OIA D-II volleyball title

Pearl City players and coaches were unanimous on Wednesday night.

The Chargers played their best game of the season with a championship on the line.

Senior outside hitters Jeremiah Perifanos-Ta’amu and Zion Tupuola-Fetui combined for 26 kills and setter Cameron Reimer ran the offense well, tallying 34 assists in a 25-20, 25-14, 26-24 sweep of Kalani to win the OIA Division II title at Radford gym.

“It’s the best we’ve played all season and all year,” Perifanos-Ta’amu said. “It feels great to know that we made history.”

The Chargers (6-6) claimed their first OIA boys volleyball championship in Division II and first overall since 2002.

“Throughout the season we’ve had good games of a little bit of everything but we’ve never had that complete package,” Pearl City coach Sean Chang said. “Tonight is honestly the closest we’ve had to have everything there — everything at a great level the whole time.”

The Chargers finished seventh overall in the OIA West but earned the top seed in Division II and got to the final with a win over McKinley.

Kalani (7-6) finished sixth in the OIA East ahead of two Division I teams and advanced to the final with a win over Waialua.

Pearl City never trailed in either of the first two sets.

Three different Chargers had at least three kills in the first set as Reimer primarily set Tupuola-Fetui and Perifanos-Ta’amu, who each had five kills.

With his two 6-foot-3 outside hitters in the front row to start the second set, Reimer served the first five points with an ace to put Pearl City ahead 5-0.

“I love serving. It’s like my favorite thing to do, honestly,” Reimer said. “Besides the serving, we have the big hitters and big blockers up there and I felt so good.”

Reimer’s third ace came during the first three points of the third set as Pearl City again went up early, but this time Kalani fought back.

Junior outside Keoni Thiim, who led the Falcons in kills, had six of his 12 in the third set. They all came during a 16-9 run that put Kalani ahead 20-14.

Pearl City’s block took over to make the comeback happen with Reimer in on a stuff to make it 21-18. Kalani used its second timeout after a hitting error made it 21-19.

Falcons setter Leimana Naki, who finished with 20 assists, went quick to middle Kai Anderson, who put down his sixth kill to give Kalani a 22-19 lead.

Reimer found Tupuola-Fetui for a kill and then served in his fourth ace to make it 22-21.

Kalani had a swing for the set, but Tupuola-Fetui and Seth Sugimoto combined for consecutive blocks to put the Chargers up 25-24.

A Kalani dump shot then landed just wide of the line, setting off a wild celebration on the Chargers’ side of the net.

“Words can not explain how I feel because it’s been a long journey,” Reimer said. “We kind of expected this because we had the talent but we just hadn’t put it together in the regular season. I think because we all came in with the same mentality that we were going to win as long as we did our job I think we were set.”

Perifanos-Ta’amu finished with a game-high 16 kills and added eight digs to complete an all-around night.

“I feel like our confidence and our drive and our passion and love for the sport won us the game tonight,” he said. “We’ve been practicing being disciplined and I feel like tonight we wanted it more.”