Moanalua holds off Kalaheo to capture OIA D-I volleyball crown

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BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM

Moanalua players stormed the court after beating Kalaheo to win the D-I title.

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BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM

Moanalua’s Max Slaughter(10) slams past Kalaheo’s Liam York(10) in the fourth set of the Kalaheo vs Moanalua volleyball match for the OIA D1 Boys Volleyball Championship at Radford HS Gym, Wednesday, April 24, 2019.

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BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM

Moanalua players posed after beating Kalaheo to win the OIA Division I title.

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Twice, the Kalaheo Mustangs had defending champion Moanalua on the ropes.

Twice, Na Menehune clutched up to eke out a 25-19, 22-25, 25-21, 26-24 win to capture the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I boys volleyball championship at James Alegre Gymnasium.

Max Slaughter led Moanalua (13-1) with 29 kills and DiAeris McRaven added 17. McRaven, a 6-foot-5 junior, also had two blocks. Middle Joshua Galeria tallied seven kills and two key blocks in the fourth set.

“We became more disciplined to what we wanted to do, we had more success,” Moanalua coach Alan Cabanting said. “It’s difficult for our back row because Liam (York) was hitting over our blocks. Kudos to these guys. Those final five, six points, they were in their spots and forced Liam to do things he wasn’t comfortable for him.”

This is Moanalua’s seventh league title in the past eight years.

York led Kalaheo (12-2) with 19 kills and Tyler Wemple added 13.

“Our team played well, but we had plenty of unforced errors on our side. Moanalua played well and had the upper hand,” Mustangs coach Sivan Leoni said.

Kalaheo was chasing its first OIA title since 2005.

“I’m not happy we lost, but I’m happy where we are. That was our best match of the season,” Leoni added.

Moanalua took a 14-13 lead on a roof by McRaven and stayed in front. An ace by Fukumitsu opened it to 20-17, and Slaughter drilled a right-side kill and and an ace as the lead increased to 22-18. Serve-receive issues with Slaughter at serve derailed Kalaheo in the final stage of set one.

The Mustangs unleashed York in the second set with a torrent of back-row missiles from the Springfield College (Mass.)-bound senior. They opened a quick 11-2 lead, and though Moanalua cut it to 15-12, Kalaheo regained momentum and stretched the lead to 20-14 when Moanalua went to Slaughter continuously, cutting the lead to 23-22.

Out of a Kalaheo time out, Eugenio fed middle Jordan Neufeldt for his first kill, and an exhausted Slaughter committed a hitting error to end the set. Slaughter had 11 kills in the second game.

The third set was extremely close, a see-saw battle with each team’s top hitter relatively inactive at first. Kalaheo had a 24-23 lead when Slaughter came through with his sixth kill of the game. After a lift was called on Eugenio, Moanalua sealed the set on a feed from Ryson Casupang to Slaughter for the kill.

The fourth set was another neck-and-neck battle, and Kalaheo had a 14-10 lead before it slipped away. A hitting error on a basic two-handed dump by York went wide out of bounds to end the match.