Moanalua's Jojo Kruize put down 15 kills to help lead Na Menehune to a straight set sweep over Nanakuli. Peter Caldwell | SL

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102214_1212_Nanakuli_082.JPG - Peter Caldwell | SL

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Moanalua outside hitters Jojo Kruize and Lia Gaogao have gained notoriety as a pair front-row attackers, but the duo did some of their best work from the back row Tuesday night.

Kruize and Gaogao put down 15 kills apiece to pace Moanalua in a three-set sweep of Nanakuli in a semifinal match of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Girls Volleyball Tournament at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium. The scores were 25-18, 25-15 and 25-16.

Moanalua will try for its first league title since 2007 and fourth overall against Kapolei Friday. That match will be played at 7:30 p.m. at McKinley.

Kruize and Gaogao got a number of their kills in an unconventional way: from the back row.

"I think that their block wasn't ready for such a strong back row attack and that's something that we worked hard on in practice, because we need an outlet just in case things don't go right," said Kruize, a 5-foot-11 junior. "I think we just had to focus and swing from the back row."

Na Menehune served tough against the Golden Hawks, who had 16 aces in a quarterfinal win last week, and passed well, which helped the offense flow.

"I think the big thing was that we were passing well and because we passed well we were able to run everybody and it opens up a lot when we do set the back row, as well," Moanalua coach Alan Cabanting said. "We've been working on it all season, but they were a bit more excited (Tuesday) and a little bit more aggressive on the attack.

Nanakuli standout outside hitter Natalia Kaopua was held to nine kills. Many of her tips and touch shots were well covered by Moanalua libero Joy Kurosawa and defensive specialist Erin Fujitani.

"We watched Nanakuli play Waianae last week  — which was awesome to be able to see them play in our gym — and then the following two days in practices we were ensuring that the girls understood where the balls are going to go in case certain things happen the way they did," Cabanting said. "Early in the first and second sets the girls were still guessing even though we already told them where the ball is going to go and what's going to happen, but when they started to believe it they started to make plays, which kind of threw off Nanakuli a little bit."

Cabanting credited setter Bryanne Yasui and Embree Sato for keeping the Golden Hawks' blockers off balance.

"We showed great balance and it's nice that our setters are distributing the ball really well," Cabanting said. "We're setting the middles as well, when we need to and that's allowing the two outsides to pinpoint wherever they want to attack through the holes in the gap that the middles are creating."

The teams were tied at 16-apiece in the opening set before Moanalua closed it out on a 9-2 run. Game two was knotted at 5-all, but Na Menehune built a 17-13 lead and scored eight of the next 10 points to take the set. Moanalua used a 5-0 run early in game three to take a 10-5 advantage and a 6-0 run a little later to extend its lead to 19-10.

"They definitely have great options," Nanakuli coach Junius Wong said of Moanalua. "I think they kept in system longer than we were pretty much the entire game and that's why they were able to run a lot of different types of plays that we were used to — we ran those types of plays on the other side of the net during practice — so they're used to that kind of offense in front of them, (but) we just weren't able to execute on our side of the ball."

The Golden Hawks and Kaopua, who had a match-high 17 kills against Waianae, were never able to find their groove Tuesday.

"I think Moanalua's serving definitely got us out of rhythm long enough to keep us off balance," Wong said. "We basically became a one-hitter team for most of the game with (Kaopua) — which was not a bad thing — but giving one girl the whole work load doesn't really prove to be successful."

Nanakuli will play Mililani in the 6:30 p.m. third-place match Wednesday at Farrington's Richard Kitamura Gymnasium.

KAPOLEI 3, MILILANI 0: Jayleen Abregana had 13 kills and nine digs to lead the Hurricanes past the Trojans in the late semifinal match Tuesday at McKinley. The Hurricanes (11-2) avenged a previous loss to the Trojans (10-2) in the season and have now won 10 consecutive matches.