No. 2 ekes past No. 1

A confluence of effective passing, hitting and coaching earned the Kame- hameha girls volleyball team its biggest win of the season.

Now the Warriors must do it again — but at home.

For Friday night’s 28-26, 29-27 outcome at Punahou’s Hemmeter Fieldhouse to mean anything in the big scheme, the No. 2 Warriors have to beat their top- ranked nemesis in a playoff. The road victory set up a 6 p.m. Monday rematch at Kekuhaupio Gym to settle the Interscholastic League of Honolulu first-round championship.

The Warriors and Buffanblu, with identical 9-1 ILH records, head-to-head records and won-lost sets, went to a card draw to determine the host. Kamehameha won that, too.

“We’re both going to come back very, very hungry,” said Warriors senior hitter Pomai Recca, who had a team-high nine kills. “We’re very excited to see each other again, play each other, battle, go toe-to-toe.”

Standard 25-point sets were not enough to contain these teams. Punahou looked poised to send the match to a third set behind its raucous, packed home crowd, leading 24-23, 25-24 and 26-25.

Kamehameha got big kills from Alohi Robins-Hardy and Pikake Laumauna to stay in it, then buckled down defensively and forced Punahou into attack errors to end it. The out- come was reversed from Punahou’s straight-sets win at Kamehameha exactly a month prior.

Punahou couldn’t control the middle this time.

“Every time we got to the point to either pull ahead or finish it, they came up with a great play,” Punahou coach Peter Balding said. “I think that they’ve improved a lot more than we have since last time we played them. It doesn’t mean we haven’t improved, but they (did more).”

Robins-Hardy had 17 assists, four kills and two blocks for Kamehameha. Faith Ma’afala added seven assists and three kills on her birthday. Laumauna had six kills and Tiyana Hallums five.

Kamehameha had to overcome Punahou’s big block to get it done. The Buffanblu knocked down six Warriors attacks in the first set, the last of which made it 20-17 for the hosts.

It capped a 10-2 Punahou run and forced Kamehameha coach Chris Blake to call a timeout.

“We were trying to get the best matchups that we could,” Blake said. “Peter and his staff made a lot of great adjustments. So for us, having to go back and forth and do that was great.”

The Warriors rallied and put away the set on a big block at the middle by Laumauna and Kea Browne.

Punahou got a match-high 12 kills from senior hitter Carly Kan and 21 assists from setter Tayler Higgins.

Monday’s loser must contend with third-ranked ‘Iolani and the rest of the talented ILH for the league’s other state spot derived from the second round, which starts Tuesday.

The winner will play out the second round, but its berth to states is assured.