No worries, coach, your girls are listening.

With music blaring throughout a full gym before the third set at Kahuku, Castle coach Grant Tolentino had some harsh words for his team. He told them in his booming voice that they needed to pick it up, that Pearl City, which won the second set to tie it, could send them home as losers. While all eyes in the huddle were on the coach, nearly every foot on the floor was tapping in time to the music.

When the music stopped, the Knights stepped onto the floor and earned a trip to the state tournament.

"After the second set, coach told us to put some fire under our butts," Ku‘ulei Lynch said. "He wanted us to win this game and go home. Lucky we pulled it together and got it done."

Lynch had 13 kills, and Rachel Lafitaga added nine as Castle beat Pearl City 26-24, 21-25, 25-22, 25-22 in the OIA volleyball tournament on Thursday night at Kahuku.

"I am real excited," Tolentino said. "It is my third year back into states and I am hoping we draw Punahou or Kamehameha, that’s what it is all about, tough competition."

Before the Knights can think about the state’s powers, they will have to contend with the rest of the OIA tournament. Castle plays Kahuku on Tuesday at McKinley, while Pearl City will have to beat Kaiser on Tuesday at Radford to get into the state tournament. Mililani beat Kalani and Moanalua beat Campbell to give the OIA four of its six state tournament representatives. Kalani and Campbell play Tuesday at Radford for the other state berth.

Castle is 10-3 with its losses to Moanalua, Kahuku and Farrington. Pearl City dropped to 8-3 after building a 4-game winning streak.

Castle’s task was easy enough on Thursday night — all it had to do was stop Pearl City’s Kaya Chong. Chong led all scorers with 24 kills with only five errors. She got plenty of help from Johnnai Kapua (eight kills) and Taylor Inong (seven kills) but the simple truth of the match was that when the Chargers passed well enough to get Chong the ball, something good happened. When they didn’t it usually meant a point for Castle.

"She’s probably the most experienced player we have on the court and she leads by example," Pearl City coach Kory Toyozaki said. "We just have to try to find the team that practices in Pearl City and bring them wherever we have to go."

The teams were even throughout the first set, with Pearl City building the biggest lead of four points at 7-3. Castle came back to tie it at 24-24 when Lynch drilled a ball straight down to the floor from the middle of the net.

After an ace by Qaira Puaauli-Puahi, Lynch closed out the set with another kill.

The Chargers ran out to another early lead in the second set, but this time they held it with seven kills from Chong and a soaring kill by Kiana Tilton to win it, 25-21. That got Castle’s attention.

"I tried to fire up the girls, light a fire under their butts," Tolentino said. "We wanted to give Pearl City a harder time.

"Props to Pearl City; they are a great ballhandling team. They came out on Tuesday and got some notes on us from our game against Waianae and it showed. They took a lot of our main shots away."

The teams traded the lead three times in the crucial third set, but Castle took off after finding itself tied at 20-20 when Shaney Tiumalu had successive kills and Keisha Ganigan-Preston matched her with two more to make it 24-20. After Chong went across the court for a kill and McKayla Apo served up an ace, Tolentino called a timeout that led to more dancing by the Knights. Lynch put down a kill after the break to end it for Castle.

The Knights led throughout the fourth set and won it when Qaire Puaauli-Puahi, who didn’t start because of a sore ankle and was limited to seven kills, executed a dump shot that forced three Chargers to run into each other trying to keep it off the floor.