Self described "water rats," Kahea and Nohea Kahaulelio took their love of the ocean into the pool about six years ago when their uncle encouraged them to give water polo a try.

The sisters, largely inseparable out of the water, went on to contribute to OIA championships each of their four years at Kahuku and turned in twin performances in the Red Raiders’ 17-3 win over Kapolei in the tournament final on Saturday at Central Oahu Regional Park.

The twins scored four goals each and the Red Raiders won their sixth straight league title and 12th in the past 13 years.

"It was amazing to finish this with my sister," Nohea Kahaulelio said. "People always say, ‘Why are you guys always together?’ and it’s like ‘Because it’s better when we’re together.’ It’s all teamwork and it was awesome."

The twins’ uncle, Aukai Ferguson, coached Kahuku to its first five championships from 2003 to ’07 and Larisa Luehrs had been part of recent championships as an assistant coach and a volunteer. She savored her first as head coach on Saturday and the Red Raiders will take aim at the program’s first state title this week at Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex.

The HHSAA/Stanford Carr Development LLC Girls Water Polo State Championship begins Wednesday with the title match set for Saturday on the University of Hawaii campus.

"We’re prepared," Luehrs said. "We’re physically there, we’re mentally there, we just have to have a good couple practices this next week, come together as a team and talk about things. We have good positive vibes going on, so we should have a continuous flow for next week."

Kahea Kahaulelio scored twice in the first quarter on Saturday to give Kahuku the lead and Nohea added three in the second and the Red Raiders continued to pull away from the Hurricanes.

Indie Pyzel also scored four goals, three coming in the fourth quarter. Ava Countryman finished with three and Rachel Chandler added two more.

Kapolei will join Kahuku in the state tournament, having clinched one of the OIA’s six berths earlier in the league tournament. Kapolei coach Dexter Lee said the team "played up" to advance to Saturday’s final, but the Hurricanes couldn’t quite keep up with the Red Raiders.

"They’re fast, there’s no one with their speed in the OIA," Lee said. "Athletically they get in front of us and from that point it’s one-on-one with the goalie."

In addition to protecting the Red Raiders’ goal, Kahuku sophomore Noa Cravens helped set up several goals with long passes on counter attacks.

"She is probably one of the foundations for the team and her passes are getting very good," Luehrs said. "We’re trying to help her lead the pass to the goal rather than have the girls look back."

The Kahaulelio twins were often on the receiving end, breaking ahead of the pack to either hammer in goals or set up their teammates for open looks.

"It was kind of iffy in the beginning with us rushing our shots," said Kahea, who also had two assists in the third quarter. "We had patience in the second quarter, looking for the plays, looking for the positions that are open and don’t take wild shots."

Trailing 7-0 at halftime, Kapolei’s Devan Fenumiai scored twice in the third quarter and Leilani Herrera scored off a rebound late in the period.

"We got a good picture of where we need to improve to compete with the higher level teams," Lee said.