The Moanalua boys volleyball team started its Saturday with a heaping helping of a breakfast of champions.

Na Menehune shook off a slow start in the 10 a.m. game at Radford, but recovered to beat No. 7 Kaiser 18-25, 25-19, 25-18, 25-14 to win their third straight OIA Red championship.

Moanalua (15-4) rolled out of bed supremely confident it could win its fifth straight tournament match, benching its starters and getting rolled 25-18 in the first set.

"It was an opportunity for the younger kids to see the championship game," Moanalua coach Alan Cabanting said. "The kids who started are the same kids who will be coming back for us next year. It was an opportunity for them to see what it will be like next year when we have to defend the championship."

Just because Austin Matautia and the other starters took the floor for the second match, things didn’t go as easily as Moanalua might have hoped. Kaiser played Moanalua even, tying it at 15-all before Na Menehune made an 8-2 run thanks to three kills by Matautia and two errors by the Cougars (13-3). Kaiser middle blocker Joe Hoddick put down a kill and Moanalua’s Karson Cruz hit wide to pull the Cougars within 24-19, but Tahi Caldwell buried a ball down the line to tie the sets at one.

Moanalua ran out to a big lead, 9-4, early in the third set, but Kaiser trailed by three, 21-18, before Moanalua took over the end game with four straight points punctuated by Zarin Augustiro’s block of Christian Sele to back Kaiser into a corner down 2-1.

Moanalua didn’t need to dominate the end game in the fourth set, but did anyway. Kaiser had eight hitting errors and allowed Moanalua to take a 22-12 lead and cruise to the finish. The match ended when Casey Bolda hit into the net.

"Frustration sets in and they felt it," Kaiser coach Jon Stanley said. "Their game went up and ours went down. We played well, I thought, for the first three games, but (Moanalua) just got excited and dug everything."

Caldwell led the champions with 10 kills, Matautia added nine and Cruz contributed eight. Moanalua gets the OIA’s seeded berth in next week’s state tournament, just as it has the past two years. Both of those journeys ended the same way, with a loss in the second round. But getting back there matters to an unranked Moanalua squad that was 4-4 against OIA Red foes before going on its tear through the consolation bracket.