The Punahou girls volleyball team is getting pretty good at bucking a trend.

The Buffanblu broke up Kamehameha’s six-year run as state champion last year, and followed it up Saturday by becoming the first Hawaii team since 2007 to win the Ann Kang Invitational at ‘Iolani.

Punahou went unchallenged in the three-day tournament, going 8-0 and not dropping a set until taking out Redondo Union of California 25-21, 23-25, 15-10 in the final. The Buffanblu swept Redondo Union on Friday, but ran into an inspired bunch in the championship.

"This is pretty special," Punahou coach Peter Balding said. "Any time you are able to win this prestigious event that honors a woman who was such a wonderful human being, it is a feather in our cap."

Facing a deciding game for the first time this year, Punahou regrouped and began the third with Brittney Markwith hitting long down the line. Officials ruled it a touch, though, causing Redondo Union coach Tommy Chaffins to lose it for a second. Chaffins slammed his clipboard on the floor and was given yellow and red cards for it. That turned what he thought was a 1-0 lead with the serve into a 2-0 deficit without the ball, and the Buffanblu scored twice more to make it 4-0 before Chaffins called timeout.

"I get a red card about every five years," Chaffins said. "I thought it was not even close. In fact their coach apologized to me for the call after the match. I know we are not going to get all of the close ones, but that wasn’t close."

Chaffins challenged his team to make up for his miscue and the Sea Hawks cut the lead to 12-10 before the Buffanblu put them away. Tayler Higgins powered a ball through the block, Julia Lau followed with an ace and Carly Kan drilled a ball down the line for her first kill of the set to end it.

"You never know what to expect from the mainland teams," Kan said. "It was really intense, but it was fun. I love good competition."

Redondo Union won the tournament in 2009 with a victory over Punahou in the final. Kamehameha was the last Hawaii school to win it five years ago.

A team from outside Hawaii has won it in 13 of the past 15 years.

Remo Gaogao led the Buffanblu with 14 kills, and Kan added nine. The Buffanblu never really got it going until they stopped leaning on their big hitters so much. Kan and Gaogao had nine of Punahou’s 20 kills in the first set, 10 of their 15 in the second and four of their eight in the third.

"(Outside hitters Gaogao and Kan) are kind of our go-to people," Balding said. "We rely pretty heavily on them to be able to put the ball away. They are going to get their sets, but we may have gone away from the middle in the second. When we went back to the middle we got back on track."

Punahou made it to the final with a 25-18, 25-18 win over Los Alamitos (Calif.) in the semifinal on Saturday. Kan carried the load with 12 kills, seven of them coming in the second set.

"They don’t make a lot of mistakes," Los Alamitos coach Dave Huber said. "You have to be flawless, or nearly flawless, to be able to beat them."

Los Alamitos swept ‘Iolani for third place in the Gold bracket. Mid-Pacific won the Silver bracket over Kahuku, Branson (Calif.) won the Bronze bracket by beating Oaks Christian (Calif.), and Castle defeated Hawaii Baptist for the title in the Copper bracket.