PUKALANI, MAUI » Seniors Morgan Rapozo and Ashia Joseph led the comeback charge as Waiakea outlasted Castle 25-19, 21-25, 18-25, 25-19, 15-7 in Division I opening-round play of the HHSAA girls volleyball state championships last night at Kamehameha-Maui.

The Warriors were up just 8-6 before closing out the final set with a fury, getting kills from Rapozo, Joseph and Riley Handa.

Waiakea (16-1), which was unbeaten until the Big Island Interscholastic Federation playoffs, will face host Kamehameha-Maui in tonight’s quarterfinal round. The Warriors advanced by staying true to their strengths against a much taller foe.

"We’re playing our game, ball control," Rapozo said.

Coach Chris Leonard adjusted the lineup with his team down two games to one, moving the versatile Joseph to the right side, where her defense made a big difference against Castle’s power hitter, 6-foot sophomore Joshell Lilio.

"We’ve been in that situation before," Joseph said of being behind. "We didn’t want that to happen again."

Rapozo led Waiakea with 13 kills and Joseph added 10 kills and three aces.

Middle Verna Lynch had a strong performance for Castle (9-9), the fourth-place team from the OIA. Lynch had four blocks, while Lilio led Castle with 16 kills.

It was a first meeting as coaches for Leonard and Castle’s Grant Tolentino. They faced each other as players in the 1980s when Tolentino was an OIA player of the year at Castle and Leonard played at Kailua.

Kaiser 3, Moanalua 1

At King Kekaulike High, 6-foot junior Haley Durham had 10 kills and seven blocks as the Cougars beat Na Menehune for the first time in four meetings this season, 26-24, 12-25, 25-23, 25-17, advancing to today’s quarterfinals.

Kaiser (12-6) plays fourth-seeded Kamehameha-Hawaii (14-2) at 5 p.m. today at King Kekaulike.

Moanalua (14-4) beat the Cougars twice in the regular season and once in the OIA playoffs in their previous meetings.

For Kaiser, sophomore Nikki Taylor had 10 kills, junior Courtney Phillips had seven kills and four blocks, junior Jolie Au 17 assists and 13 digs and senior Taylor Candelario 21 digs. For Moanalua, junior Erin Perez had 25 kills, senior Courtney Calicdan 18 kills and junior Courtney Uyeda 49 assists.

Mililani 3, King Kekaulike 0

Shyanne Cossey had 14 kills as Mililani swept King Kekaulike 25-22, 25-21, 25-14, to advance to the quarterfinals.

Mililani (14-4) plays top-seeded Punahou (18-2) at 7 tonight at King Kekaulike.

Jordyn Keamo had nine assists, seven kills, four digs, four blocks and two aces for Mililani. For King Kekaulike (8-7), Kristen Egger had 12 assists and two aces, Alina Hara 10 digs and Ui Kepani two kills and eight digs.