Kamehameha found its groove at the same time that Punahou began to break down.

In the end, it added up to a four-point difference. The defending state champion and top-ranked Warriors dominated most of the third set in a 24-26, 26-24, 25-21 victory over the rival No. 2-ranked Buffanblu at a packed Hemmeter Fieldhouse on Thursday night.

"We expect everyone to come at us with their best and Punahou did that, putting us in a couple of bad spots," Kamehameha coach Chris Blake said. "I think it came down to execution and leadership. The girls understood that they had to step it up and when they made that decision, we caught them (the Buffanblu) in the middle of the second set and got some separation in the third."

When push came to shove in the third set, Kamehameha had a little extra. Blake said the team finally began to execute, and he credited the leadership of captains Tiyana Hallums and Mia Heirakuji.

"We concentrated on staying up, keeping everyone’s energy up," Heirakuji said.

Hallums, who had 12 kills, said the closeness of the match is a sign that more work needs to be done.

"That (near loss) definitely motivated us even more," she said.

In the first set, three kills by outside hitter McKenna Granato helped Punahou take a 24-20 lead, but the Warriors fought back to tie it at 24. Lillie Klemmer’s block and a Kamehameha error ended it.

Punahou took control midway through the second set, when consecutive kills by Kiana Peroff gave the Buffanblu a 17-12 edge.

The Warriors called timeout and immediately went to work on coming back. Hallums smashed four kills to whittle the deficit to two, 19-17.

The Buffanblu maintained a small lead until 23-22, before Kamehameha tied it up and then took the lead 24-23 on Sarah Lau’s jump-serve ace.

At 24-24, the Warriors closed it out with Kayla Afoa’s kill and a combined block by Kamalani Akeo and Brooke Ka‘awa.

Kamehameha sprinted out to leads of 15-8 and 20-12 in the deciding set.

"We beat ourselves," said Granato, who finished with 12 kills. "In the third, we played like we thought it was over. And then we had a timeout and we came back and did better."

Two straight net violations on the Warriors, along with kills by Granato pushed the Buffanblu within two at 23-21, but kills by Kealani Browne and Hallums put a lock in the Kamehameha victory.

"In the third, we didn’t pass as sharp as we wanted to," Punahou coach Tanya Fuamatu-Anderson said. "It came down to a lack of ballhandling skills. We will be going over our missed opportunities and work on cleaning it up."