The biggest titan of all turns out to be Mira Costa.

The Mustangs from California, ranked No. 4 nationally, got super defense from Brooks Varni and used a balanced attack to knock off Punahou 25-19, 15-25, 25-14, 25-17 Saturday night in the Clash of the Titans tournament.

“Our libero was lights out tonight,” Mustangs coach Mike Ninnis said of the USC-bound libero, who had 26 digs. “Punahou as a team dug a lot of balls. The one guy we have who can hang with them is Brooks.”

A boisterous crowd of about 2,000 watched at Hemmeter Fieldhouse as Punahou, ranked No. 2 in the country, did all it could to stay with the bigger, taller squad from the West Coast. Keith Waddell, a

6-foot-6 middle, pounded 13 kills. Riley Mallon, one of the shorter Mustangs at just 6 feet, had 11 kills, while 6-5 Ryan Kaseff and 6-4 Scott Stephanoff added 10 kills apiece.

Mallon was the most emotional of the Mustangs, thriving on Punahou’s crowd.

“It was really fun to be here, a different experience to play in front of a crowd that big,” he said.

It was also fun times for senior Jackson Carr, a George Mason-bound setter who distributed 49 assists.

“It makes my job a lot easier. I can put the ball anywhere and trust my guys,” Carr said. “It was mental, we needed to stay constant on our side and not focus on all the digs Punahou was getting. It was unreal. We had guys going up one-on-none and they were digging it.”

The national rankings mean something to the Mustangs (12-3 overall), at least to Carr.

“I think we should be ranked No. 1,” he said, noting that arch rival Loyola (Calif.) is the country’s top-ranked team.

Still, it was Varni who kept the visitors from unraveling against a persistent Punahou attack. Sophomore Larry Tuileta led the home team with 23 kills.

“I’m exhausted,” the 6-2 outside hitter said. “But it was fun. If there’s any team I don’t mind losing to, it’s Mira Costa. That’s a good team right there. They played great defense. Their libero picked up everything and they made less errors than us.”

Sean Gruebner added seven kills and Micah Ma‘a had 42 assists to go with three kills.

Punahou, ranked No. 1 in the state, had defeated Corona del Mar (Calif.) the night before in the two-day exhibition.

“That’s a very good team. This was a very hostile crowd for us with the band and everything. Punahou is so young; it’s scary how good they’re going to be in a year,” Ninnis said. “We got a feel for what they like to do on offense, so we tried to move a blocker over.”

In the earlier match, Corona del Mar (Calif.) rallied for a 19-25, 25-22, 25-23,

24-26, 15-8 victory over Hawaii Baptist behind 24 kills by senior Parker Brown.

Another senior, 6-5 middle Jack Reed, was instrumental with 17 kills. He had three of his four blocks in the final set to disarm the Eagles.

Junior Michael Fisher, a 6-6 outside hitter, led HBA with 30 kills and added two aces. Senior Chad Barretta had 18 kills and a match-high five aces.

Brown had a slow start, but caught fire in the third set with 11 of the Sea Kings’ 14 kills. HBA, the defending state champion in Division II, faced a fierce wall by then. After hitting .396 in the first two sets, the Eagles hit .184.

Setters Joe Ctvrtlk (Corona del Mar) and Mason Ohta (HBA) dished out 53 assists apiece.

Remy Lamos added nine kills and Thomas Hunter chipped in five for the visitors.

Kaimana Triska tallied six kills for HBA.

The Eagles used timely serving to stay close, finishing with eight aces and 11 service errors. Corona del Mar had just one ace with 14 service errors. They hit .426 for the match, including .750 in the decisive final game.

The battle at the net was even with eight blocks each, but Corona caught a second wind and challenged HBA’s big guns, Fisher and Barretta, with double defenders in the final set to cause a flurry of hitting errors.