KEAAU >> This Halloween show might have been too much for Kamehameha to handle.

After punching their ticket to the state finals, members of the Kamehameha girls volleyball team stuck around to watch the other semifinal. They only stayed for the first set, but what they saw was certainly frightening: A nearly perfect Punahou performance at the New City Nissan/HHSAA girls volleyball state championships at Kamehameha-Hawaii.

The Buffanblu beat OIA champion Mililani 25-10, 25-12, 25-8 in just over an hour to earn a chance to defend the state championship it has won the past two years with victories over Kamehameha.

“We have a chance (against Kamehameha) if our passing is like this,” Punahou coach Tanya Fuamatu-Anderson said. “Everything starts with our passing and it worked today.”

That passing gave Punahou’s McKenna Rose Granato all of the makings for a perfect game. Every ball was right where she wanted it and every time she rose above the net there was hardly any block to greet her. It all added up to 17 kills on 25 swings with just one error.

“I guess it’s fun,” said Granato, who hit .640 in the match. “It’s definitely something you want to swing at. A lot of teams kind of stack over there but they didn’t.”

Remo Gaogao and Mariah Rigg each had 10 kills for the Buffanblu. Sarah Liva led Mililani with nine kills, but every statistic went Punahou’s way. The Buffanblu hit .500 to Mililani’s .084. Punahou dished out 49 assists to Mililani’s 19. Digs? 42-33 for Punahou. Blocks? Punahou had two solos and four assists. Mililani had a single solo block by Liva.

“Everything worked for them and we just had a bad start,” Mililani coach Val Crabbe said. “We put hands on her she just hit through the block and they played flawless. That’s all it was.”

The Buffanblu started the hyped matchup on fire and led the entire way, forcing the OIA champs to take their first timeout with the score 9-3. Granato only had three kills at that point, so Mililani must have had no idea what was coming next. The Buffanblu ran the lead to 17-7 when they looked for Granato on every play and she blasted three straight kills. The lead continued to grow until Rigg mercifully ended the set with a kill off Kristen Miguel’s block.

The teams switched sides but their fortunes didn’t. The Trojans took a brief 2-1 lead but Granato beat them for three kills on the next five plays and Punahou led 5-3. The lead grew and there was not much the Trojans could do. Gaogao ended that set with a kill and Marissa Behrens ended the third set with her only kill of the match.