Down by 5 in the fifth and final set, Moanalua coach Alan Cabanting let his girls play instead of calling a timeout, sensing that their experience would help them overcome the deficit.
Na Menehune chipped away and rallied to win Friday’s OIA Division I championship match over Kapolei, 25-16, 25-20, 20-25, 23-25, 15-13, at McKinley gym.
Jojo Kruize had 21 kills and Lia Gaogao added 17 as No. 3 Moanalua (14-0) redeemed itself from last year’s loss in the title match to Mililani.
It needed an emotional push to get through the final set.
“I told them they’re prepared for this situation, be confident in the things you do and let’s take care of our responsibilities,” Cabanting said.
“It feels so good,” said Moanalua setter Bryanne Yasui, who finished with 25 assists and five aces. “We’re just staying focused and super energized to get back in it. And fight, we’ve been working so hard for it.”
Jayleen Abregana had 16 kills and Shekinah Clarke had 15 kills for Kapolei (11-3). Annika San Nicolas had 51 assists.
Kapolei jumped out to a 7-2 lead in Set 5. Rather than calling a timeout and having his girls dwell on their mistakes, Cabanting allowed them to play through it.
“They knew what they needed to do and I didn’t want them to think about the mistakes that just happened,” he said.
Moanalua cut the deficit to 8-7 and Kapolei called timeout.
The set was tied six times before Baylei Furman’s kill put Moanalua ahead 14-13 and Kapolei called another timeout.
Clarke was called for a lift to end the match, sending Moanalua players onto the floor in celebration.
“We moved people around, we set our middle (Furman) on the outside,” Cabanting said. “It was the first time she hit that attack and she got a kill for us. The experience and just mental toughness of the girls came through at the very end.”
The Hurricanes got themselves back into the match by digging balls, tooling Moanalua’s block and throwing everything at Na Menehune, who struggled with their passing.
Kapolei also cleaned up its passing. It got aced eight times through the first two sets and gave up just two more aces after that.
“We just played our game and came together more as a team like how we usually do,” San Nicolas said. “We were telling each other to play for the love of the game, we can’t do anything different, just play our game.”
Both teams have qualified for the D-I state championships that start Friday at Moanalua and Kamehameha-Maui. This will be Kapolei’s first trip to the D-I states.
