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ALIAMANU — The kings of the OIA still reside in Salt Lake. 

No. 4 Moanalua staved off No. 3 Mililani's hopes of a changing of the guard Wednesday night to continue its reign as the league's dominant force in boys volleyball.

Ezekiel Sablan put down 20 kills and was one of three players to record double-digit kills for Na Menehune in their five-set win over the Trojans in the title match of the OIA Division I tournament before a crowd of about 600 fans at Radford's Jim Alegre Gymnasium. The set scores were 25-19, 25-15, 27-29, 23-25 and 15-10. 

A year after Na Menehune claimed a fourth consecutive league crown with a highly-touted senior class that included a trio of UH-bound signees, they extended their streak with largely a new cast of characters.

"There were big expectations for the seniors that are coming in because of the star-studded senior group that we had last year and so they came into their own and they earned this as a team and they figured it out as a team in the end," said Cabanting, who has guided Moanalua to 10 of its 12 OIA championships in school history. 

Sablan, a junior outside hitter and first-year varsity player, led the way by hitting .417. He took a team-high 37 swings and committed only five attack errors. He also tallied five digs and was in on four blocks, including three solo blocks. 

"It feels great to be a part of this team and to help them with another OIA winning streak and it feels great just to be here right now," Sablan said. 

Jaycen Bush contributed 14 kills and eight digs and middle D'Angelo Ross added 13 kills against just two errors on 25 swings for a .440 hitting percentage. 

Cabanting noted that it took a bit of time for some moving pieces to fall into place for his squad this spring. Sablan and opposite Trevor Kwak, who registered nine kills, hit .438 and was in on five blocks, both play middle blocker in club volleyball. 

"As we did last year, we had to figure out where everybody belonged … then all the pieces were coming into play," Cabanting said. "It was a fierce competition as to where everybody needed to be and because this group is so close, they didn't care who it was and they were just gonna support whoever was in there."

Moanalua took the first two sets by relative ease before Mililani came to life and hit .382 and .389 to take sets 3 and 4, respectively, and force a fifth set. 

In the deciding fifth set, the teams exchanged points back and forth early on. Mililani pulled ahead, 8-7, with a kill by Aris Mateo from the left side. However, Moanalua answered with a 5-0 run to seize control of the race to 15. Sablan had two kills in the run and Ross another to give their team a 12-8 cushion. 

A net violation against the Menes cut it to a three-point lead, which led Cabanting to call his first timeout of the set. After Tyler Duranceau further cut into the Big Blue lead with a kill from the left side out of the timeout, Cabanting quickly burned his second and final timeout. 

"I think with the mental strain that was happening in sets 3 and 4 and of course, it's only a game to 15, I wanted to ensure that every time that they made a play, that we were gonna focus in and take care of it," Cabanting said. 

He noted that Mililani's block was camping out on Sablan at the pin, which set-up a play for him out of the middle out of the second timeout. 

"(Maunupau) did an awesome job stacking his blockers to the pin and I said (to Sablan), 'they're stacking you to the outside. We need a side out right here. Your natural position is the middle,' and he went after it and he got us the kill." Cabanting said. 

Sablan's kill stretched it back to a 13-10 lead for his team to serve as a bit of relief. The timeouts just one point apart also allowed Sablan another type of relief. He was seen running from the team's bench area at the start of the first timeout and then returning to be with his teammates near the end of the second stoppage. 

"Yes, he had to pee," Cabanting laughed. 

Sablan's quest to stay hydrated throughout the two-hour and 35-minute match was a success in that regard.

"Oh yeah, I had to go run to the bathroom. I was chugging water after water. I was holding it the whole game," Sablan shared. "Coming back from there — in the bathroom — losing a couple pounds, it felt good to fly again and I'm thankful for my setter, Malu, for putting those balls high enough for my defense and for my defense; shoutout to Kaden (Sato), too."

Sablan followed up his kill out of the middle with a solo block at the net to force a Mililani timeout. It was, however, to no avail, as Moanalua got the match-ending kill from Kwak to finish off the Trojans. 

"We knew that they wanted it, but we just had to have the mindset that we wanted it way more than them. We just had to lock in and make sure that they had more errors," Wilcox said. 

Moanalua tallied 10 kills against just one error in 14 total attacks in set 5 for a .643 hitting percentage. Mililani hit .267 in set 5.

For the match, the Menes hit .341 as a team and held the Trojans to a .168 clip. 

Wilcox, a junior setter, recorded a double-double with 56 assists and 11 digs and Sato, a senior libero, came up with 10 digs for Na Menehune (14-0).

"It's just hard work at practice. I mean, each practice we came with the mindset that we wanted to take the title this year," Wilcox said. "Even though we didn't have the big three again, we still have great players."

Tyler Duranceau racked up 20 kills and 14 digs and Mateo had 18 kills and five digs for the Trojans (12-1). 

"We did really, really well to get to that fifth set, but I think mental breakdowns here and there with defensive coverage, service errors, hitting errors, blocking assignments — that kind of stuff is just going to cost you, especially when it's point for point," Trojans coach Gabriel Maunupau said. 

The result was in stark contrast to a scrimmage between the squads earlier in the season. Mililani swept that exhibition, which led to much self-reflection for the Menes in its aftermath. 

"Ultimately, if we take care of our errors — whether it's the serve or whether it's the attack — then we'll be fine and so after watching that video, the first set of that scrimmage we lost like 25-22, I go, ‘fellas, we hit 15 balls as errors. (If) we just take care of that then we'll be fine and so that's kind of (how) that scrimmage helped us," Cabanting assessed. 

The title game was a rematch of the last two OIA championship finals. 

The Division I bracket for the New City Nissan/HHSAA State Championships was released late Wednesday night. 

Moanalua is seeded second behind 10-time defending champion Punahou and will play either Roosevelt or the runner-up from the Maui Interscholastic League in a quarterfinal next Thursday at Kamehameha's Kekuhaupio Gymnasium. 

Mililani will host Aiea Monday in a first-round game at a time to be determined. The winner of that match will advance to face the MIL champion, who is seeded fourth in the 12-team bracket, on Thursday at Punahou's Christopher B. Hemmeter Fieldhouse.