Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Punahou libero Brandee Markwith recorded a match-high 20 digs in a win over Kamehameha. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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KAPALAMA HEIGHTS — The Punahou girls' volleyball team takes pride in its defense and it showed Tuesday night.

Libero Brandee Markwith recorded a match-high 20 digs to power Punahou past host Kamehameha in straight sets, 25-22 and 25-20, before about 300 fans at Kekuhaupio Gym.

The Buffanblu, who improved to 3-0 in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I standings, never trailed in the match. Kiana Peroff led the offensive charge, putting down a team-high eight kills to go with nine digs, Sandra Zeng had five kills, seven digs and five aces and Nikki Lum added 11 digs and 11 assists in the win.

Punahou coach Tanya Fuamatu-Anderson said she was surprised by the relative ease with which her team dispatched the always-tough Warriors.

"It's never easy to come here and win," said Fuamatu-Anderson, whose team beat Kamehameha in last year's D1 state final. "We're always prepared for Kamehameha to come out swinging and they did. They didn't, maybe in the early part of the game, but the middle and toward the end they did. They're always a never-say-die team and they've got a lot of pride and it shows in their play."

Tuesday's match, however, was a one-sided affair. The Buffanblu held big leads in both sets before holding off late charges by the Warriors in a match that lasted about 65 minutes.

Kamehameha committed 13 hitting errors and six service errors for the match, while Punahou had just four and two, respectively.

"It was easily that many; at least," Warriors' coach Chris Blake said. "Hitting errors, service errors, against a team like Punahou we can't give them too many points and we gave them. Punahou definitely put us into a lot of bad spots and executed and took advantage of our errors, for sure."

Peroff had three kills early in the opening set to give the Buffanblu a quick 6-1 lead and forced Blake to call his first timeout. After an ace by Zeng and a Lillie Klemmer kill out of the middle, the lead had stretched to 10-3. Later in the set, Kamehameha got within 17-15 fueled by a 8-3 run that led to a timeout by Fuamatu-Anderson.

The Buffanblu scored six of the next seven points to get to 23-16, but the Warriors answered with a 6-1 run to cut the deficit to 24-22. However, Zeng put down a kill from the left side to close out the first set.

Punahou jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the second set, thanks in part to three consecutive Kamehameha hitting errors and stretched it to 14-4 on Zeng's third ace of the set.

Kamehameha made a late push to get within four points of the Buffanblu at 24-20, but Peroff put the match away with a cross court shot from the left side.

"We've been working so hard in and out of practice, lifting weights, and we had a game plan and we executed it," said Peroff, who moved to outside hitter from the opposite position where she had played in previous seasons. "We fell through a little bit at the end of both sets, but we were able to pull through so kudos to whole team. It was a whole team effort. I heard the girls on the bench every single play, before and after."

The Warriors actually had more kills (24) than the Buffanblu (23) and also led in blocks, 10-0, but struggled to put chances away against the visitors' stingy defense.

"We have to do a better job, but Punahou came ready to play," Blake said. "They have a very solid team, they played excellent team defense. they did a great job getting that ball back up, playing scramble defense and they're definitely the best team that we've played so far this year. I think we have a long way to go. We showed a lot of potential in general, but hats off to Punahou. They brought their best match today and they were definitely better than us today. Definitely."

Markwith said defense has been a point of emphasis on a daily basis at practices.

"At practice we work a lot on defense; Everything is defense," Markwith said. "Ball control is the biggest part of the game and once you have a good defense, you set-up your offense to hit better and get more kills and that's something that we take pride in at Punahou; we practice that a lot."

Her coach echoed Markwith's remarks.

"Like everyone and anyone says, offense wins games, but defense wins the bigger ones, the championships," Fuamatu-Anderson said. "These guys set the tone in practice on a daily basis and they set a standard that they know they cannot fall below, so we're really proud of the work that they did out here. It shows a lot of the hard work that they're putting in in the gym."

Kayla Afoa had nine kills, 12 kills, two blocks and an ace, while Cierra Leopoldina and Kyra Hanawahine notched 14 and 12 digs, respectively, for the Warriors, who dropped to 2-1.

It was the first of three regular-season meetings between the teams. They will play at Punahou on Sept. 29 and back at Kamehameha on Oct. 10.

Kamehameha visits Maryknoll (0-3) Friday night, while Punahou will host Iolani (3-0) Saturday afternoon at Hemmeter Fieldhouse.