Moanalua rolls to another OIA crown

Austin Matautia crushed 15 kills as No. 4 Moanalua rolled over No. 7 Leilehua 25-11, 25-14, 19-25, 25-16 to capture the OIA Red boys volleyball championship on Thursday night at McKinley Student Council Gymnasium.

A crowd of about 700, including big numbers of supporters of both teams who made the trek to the neutral site, saw Moanalua win its fourth OIA title in a row. Na Menehune finished the OIA season 15-0 and will have a seeded berth — and opening-round bye — when the state tournament begins next Friday. Moanalua will also get to host a quarterfinal match next Saturday.

Moanalua did it with precision, explosion and balance. Seniors Luuga Vailuu and Dustin Carrier had 11 kills and one block each. Carrier was especially dangerous coming through the middle on misdirection sets from Skylan Engleman, who finished with 49 assists, a kill and a block.

The senior transfer from Maryknoll had never tasted a league championship until now.

"It was a great team effort. Winning the OIA is a good steppingstone to states. We’ll look forward to it and be prepared," Engleman said.

Karson Cruz added six kills and a team-high three blocks — Moanalua finished with nine blocks. Middle Reno Young added five kills and two blocks, and Victor Zamudio provided tough serving along with three kills and two aces.

"It feels good. It was a good fight," Moanalua coach Alan Cabanting said. "I told everyone that Leilehua is legitimate. They beat Kamehameha of the Big Island (in preseason). They play on energy and they can put any team away. We had to make sure they didn’t do that to us."

Na Menehune tweaked a tactic or two since their last meeting with the Mules.

"We forced the blocks a little bit more inside and the attacks more to the line," Cabanting said. "Set three, we got away from it."

For Leilehua (13-2) Robin Ramelb had nine kills and a block, and Dakota Soliai had nine kills of his own, including six in the third set when the Mules rallied. Middle David Tibayan had eight kills and two blocks, Max Aiono tallied seven kills and one block, and Toma Savea added five kills and a block.

Setter Pomai Cozo had 36 assists and an ace.

When they met on April 17, Moanalua swept Leilehua on the Mules’ court. That pegged the Mules with their first loss in the double-elimination format. They needed to beat Moanalua twice to win the league title, but the improvement was encouraging for coach Ernest Balignasay.

"They learned a big thing today, to relax, have fun and go for it," he said.

The Mules will prepare to travel for the state tourney. Seedings and pairings will be announced by the HHSAA this weekend.