Go ahead and bring the noise at states, Kalaheo is pretty sure it can handle it.

No. 4 Kalaheo beat McKinley 25-22, 23-25, 28-26, 26-24 in the OIA playoffs on Tuesday night at McKinley’s loud Student Council Gymnasium.

The Mustangs hadn’t dropped a set in a league game since beating the Tigers 2-1 a month ago at McKinley. But that match was so far removed from the latest one it was not recognizable. The regular-season meeting was in front of a small group of people lounging around in the bleachers. Tuesday’s was in front of a large pro-McKinley crowd. Perhaps most important, McKinley was without Jerry Wu a month ago but enjoyed his match-high 24 kills on Tuesday. Neither team had lost a match since then.

"We played in a few good tournaments since then," Kalaheo coach Ed Chun said. "But for the environment itself, we haven’t experienced anything like that. Home gym against us and all that, it was good for us."

Despite the loud McKinley crowd, Kalaheo’s only real advantages were height and execution in the end game.

The Trojans ran out to a 6-1 lead in the first set, the five-point margin the largest of the night for either team in any set. The first three sets all saw 20-all ties and McKinley led the fourth set 21-20. Kalaheo outscored McKinley 22-16 after both teams reached 20 points.

Kalaheo’s Sam Orcutt ruled the end game in the first set, earning three of his five kills in the set to turn a 22-20 advantage to a 25-22 win. It was Wu’s turn at the end of the second set, getting three of his eight kills to turn a 22-21 lead into a 25-23 win. Both of Kalaheo’s points came off McKinley errors, one by Wu and another by Landon Akau.

Kalaheo middle Luke Owens put on a show at the end of the crucial third set, rising to pound a kill straight to the floor for a 25-24 advantage. Owens ran around screaming before play resumed, but was served a little bit of humble pie on the next play. Owens stomped on McKinley in the last two games, but the Tigers refused to stop challenging him.

"That felt great, it was a lot of fun," Owens said. "They were saying in the newspaper that they shouldn’t lose to teams like us and I kind of took that kind of stuff personal. But McKinley is good. I like that."

McKinley’s Brandon Walker, who stands 5-foot-9, beat the 6-7 Owens in the middle to tie it 25-all, then timed his jump perfectly to roof the junior. McKinley’s Thor Akana served long to tie it back up, sending Owens behind the service line. Owens aced his first attempt when Wu shanked his hot spinner, then served another tough one and dug McKinley’s return before Devin Lee hit out trying to avoid Kupaa Harrison’s block to give Kalaheo a 2-1 advantage. The Mustangs put the fourth set away when Wu hit wide to tie it at 24-all and Owens blasted a ball to the floor for the advantage. Orcutt put back a bad pass for the final blow.

Harrison led Kalaheo with 16 kills, while Owens contributed 15 and Orcutt had 13 from the middle.

McKinley plays Roosevelt at home today. Kalaheo plays Kaiser at McKinley on Thursday.

Kaiser 3, Moanalua 1

Christian Sele had six kills in a crucial third set and the Cougars beat Na Menehune 25-17, 19-25, 25-22, 30-28 in the other match at McKinley.

Kaiser moves on to play Kalaheo, the only team that it has lost to this season, in the semifinals Thursday at McKinley.

Casey Bolda took over for Kaiser late in the fourth set, earning three straight kills before Moanalua’s Austin Amian served into the net and Bryson Chan hit another wide to end a long set.

Moanalua plays Leilehua today at McKinley.