Nearly three decades is nothing when compared with forever.

The Mid-Pacific girls volleyball team, with its first state berth since 1989 already in hand, swept visiting Damien 25-19, 25-21, 25-21 on Tuesday to force a winner-take-all match for the ILH Division II championship Thursday at Damien.

The Owls, who won the league’s second round, will try to win their first league title at 6 p.m. in the hostile gym.

“We haven’t really been a volleyball school at all,” senior middle blocker Kaehu Keala said. “But we’re stoked to be making history and having all of our classmates come and support us and represent Mid-Pac really well.”

The 6-foot-3 Keala moved from opposite to the middle earlier this season and the switch paid off in front of Mid-Pacific’s loud crowd. She led the way with 15 kills to dispatch the Monarchs. Keala was particularly inspired when she took her spot in the middle of the net, getting in on six blocks, including three in a span of four plays in the second set.

Damien, which was trying to become the first Division II school to go undefeated through a league season, knew the danger Keala presented and tried a different strategy to hold her in check. It didn’t work as well as it did during a 25-17, 25-15 sweep in December.

“In practice we made some adjustments specifically to go up defensively against Kaehu,” Damien coach Don Faumuina said. “They weren’t hitting their assignments like we planned, and not playing aggressive enough, a little tentative.”

The Monarchs looked like the world beaters they have been all season to start the match, running out to a six-point lead, 12-6, before Mid-Pacific senior Shyla Sato caught fire. Sato buried back-to-back kills to turn a 13-12 deficit into a 14-13 lead and the Owls never trailed again. They took the second set on a cross-court kill by Debi Chun with Keala rotated to the bench and took a commanding 23-14 lead in the third.

Damien rolled off a 7-1 run on a slew of Mid-Pacific errors and Shelby Capllonch’s match-high 17th kill, but Mid-Pacific’s Kamalani Kekoolani ended the drama with a kill off an assist by Emma Porter, setting off a loud celebration.

Damien’s heartbroken players walked off the court thinking their ILH season was over, coaches didn’t tell them that they get another chance on Thursday until the postgame talk. One of the teams will get their first ILH title on Thursday.

“I think we are going to have to keep working hard because Damien is going to come with a harder fight,” Keala said. “It’s going to be a good game, though.”