Waipahu’s tough serving disrupted Moanalua’s passing game.

That just meant Moanalua, in moments of disarray, kept feeding the ball to Austin Matautia.

Matautia had 25 of his team’s 41 kills as Moanalua beat Waipahu 25-18, 25-21, 25-18 in Tuesday’s semifinals of the OIA volleyball championship at Radford. Second-ranked Moanalua (13-0) will face Mililani in Thursday’s championship match.

“The thing is if you serve us off the court, our offense becomes a little bit more predictable and we have to go to Austin,” said Moanalua coach Alan Cabanting. “Of course, (our) game plan is never like that.”

The University of Hawaii-bound outside hitter buried kills from every spot on the court, and Waipahu (10-3) couldn’t do anything to stop him.

“We’ve never come across someone as good as Austin Matautia,” said Waipahu assistant coach Arthur Fanene.

Zackary Miyamoto had 35 assists and four blocks for Na Menehune, who are chasing their sixth straight OIA title. Miyamoto relied heavily on Matautia to get the team out of tough situations.

“It’s crazy the angles he hits, the velocity he hits,” Miyamoto said. “It’s amazing he can just do stuff with the ball. He’s our go-to and that’s really obvious, but we should work on getting other hitters going and getting the load off of him.”

Jeminae Solomua had 12 kills and Andrew Simanu had nine kills for Waipahu. Christian Ramoran had 31 assists as the Marauders played for coach Julna Pasicarin, who missed the match after her mother passed away.

“They wanted to play even harder and make her proud,” Fanene said.

Matautia carried Moanalua through two sets with 19 kills before other players came through on offense in Set 3. Seyj Engleman had two kills and a block to break an 8-8 tie. Miyamoto was in on consecutive blocks that started a 5-0 run, giving Moanalua a 20-12 lead.

“The mental toughness and the senior leadership (kept) us in the game,” Cabanting said.

The team doesn’t talk much about the titles the program has won. Rather, the team is focused on setting goals and winning. Moanalua has won its last four titles under Cabanting.

“This year, we’re just always focused on a new goal,” Miyamoto said. “We don’t talk about how many titles we won, we just keep wanting to win. That’s going to help us in the long run.”

Mililani sweeps Kahuku

The Trojans swept the Red Raiders 25-15, 25-20, 25-17 in a semifinal match at Radford.

Kamalu Kaaa, a Moanalua transfer, had consecutive kills to help the Trojans pull away early in Set 3. Seventh-ranked Mililani (13-0) last won an OIA title in 1994. Mililani coach John Ing said passing and defense will be key in Thursday’s match.

“Whoever can control the ball,” Ing said. “Austin is Austin (Matautia). To me, he’s the best player in the state. If we can slow him and control everything else, we’ll be OK.

“And we got to step up on our level. We cannot come up flat like how we did tonight. We got to start strong from the beginning and go from there.”

Ninth-ranked Kahuku (11-3) will face Waipahu in the third-place match.