To claim the title, it takes a decisive win over the champion.

Punahou, the seven-time defending state champion, embraced its role in 2019 as an unseeded underdog, overcoming top-seeded ‘Iolani 25-16, 24-26, 25-19, 25-22 in a mesmerizing title match of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Boys Volleyball State Championships at Blaisdell Arena.

Punahou (16-4) captured its 37th state crown in boys volleyball, its eighth in a row and 10th in the past 11 seasons under coach Rick Tune.

“These guys embraced the challenge of a different path. It’s the first time in, I don’t know, 15 years that we had to go through the path that we did,” he said. “They got to write their own story.”

Jack Deuchar led the attack with 17 kills. Kawai Hong drilled 10 kills, Claudio Clini and Jakob Kimura provided eight kills each, and Robert Allen had seven. Braxdon Simmons was relentless at the net with six blocks, teaming with Deuchar (four blocks), Allen (nine) and Kimura (eight).

Kupono Browne led ‘Iolani (13-5) with 14 kills and Kawika Lee had 11 kills and 10 digs.

‘Iolani was on the brink of its first state championship since 2008. The Raiders and Buffanblu had met five times this season, with ‘Iolani winning the last three en route to the ILH title. Though the Raiders, under coach Jordan Inafuku, had played its best volleyball of the season in the state tourney, Punahou had something new and different for their rivals this time.

“We definitely put in a couple of defenses strictly for their offense. We’ve been practicing those and working on tempo sets, X-series, we’ve been prepping for this match for about three weeks,” Tune said. “I think when you have great teams forged in great competition. ‘Iolani is a wonderful team. Everyone knows their role and they execute at a very high level. We knew we needed to step up our game two or three notches to compete with these guys.”

It was mastery by Punahou in a lopsided opening set, a stunning surprise considering the Buffanblu’s late-night, five-set win over Moanalua one night earlier in the semifinals.

Punahou’s block, with the 6-7 Deuchar flanking middles Simmons and Allen, was dominant at times in the second set.

Punahou errors opened the door, and Browne clutched up with a back-row kill to give ‘Iolani a 25-24 lead. After Clini’s right-side attempted flagged in the net, the Raiders had evened the match.

They rode that momentum into the third set. Up 20-19, Punahou closed with a 5-0 run, getting an ace from Simmons and a kill from Hong off a block to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

The Buffanblu block was relentless in the third set.

A roof by Clini opened it to 18-15, and that was followed by a distant set from the corner by Clini to Kawai for a kill. After roofs by Simmons and Clini, it was 21-16.

‘Iolani climbed back within 23-20, but Kimura’s spike from the right side, and then a left-side kill by Deuchar off the block closed the deal.