Moanalua senior outside hitter Austin Matautia puts down a kill attempt past two Mililani blockers. Matautia had 31 kills in Na Menehune's championship win. Peter Caldwell | SL

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ALIAMANU — Add another championship plaque to the collection.

Moanalua outlasted Mililani in four sets, 25-22, 25-19, 15-25 and 25-18, and completed an undefeated run in league play (14-0) to capture its sixth straight Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I title at James Alegre Gymnasium Thursday night. It was also the team's eight overall in school history.

"We came in knowing Mililani was going to fight and we just had to (give) it our all," said senior outside hitter Austin Matautia. "We did and we came out with the win and it feels so good."

Matautia was his usual self with a match-high 31 kills, but he didn't have to do it alone. Seyj Engleman, who has been playing through a back injury, put down 12 kills and Nalu Demello added five more. Middles Caleb Casinas and Justen Fong were also key, combining for five kills and nine total blocks.

Libero Zach Kagehiro had 16 digs and three aces while setter Zach Minamoto finished with 51 assists. Christian Harvey was also key with two aces.

"Everybody knows we have Austin, but at times, especially in this match, we were able to go to the supporting cast and we were able to put balls away," said Moanalua coach Alan Cabanting, who has won the OIA title every year since taking over the program in 2011. 

"When we needed to go away from Austin and get other guys involved. Seyj started to get big for us, Caleb in the middle put a couple of balls away, then (Mililani) had to commit again to the other guys and then we could go back to Austin again."

Meanwhile the Trojans (12-1) were out of sync for most of the night and suffered their first lost of the season.

"We couldn't run anything. We couldn't run our offense (and) our passing just broke down," said Mililani coach John Ing. "Without our pass, you can't run an offense so we became very predictable and we just started forcing stuff that we shouldn't be. Moanalua just played their game, not only Austin, but everybody else came through. They played well and they deserved to win that."

Signs of trouble were evident in the first set as Moanalua gained its first four points on aces.

"We knew that they were going to come firing and they had more fire power than us. We knew that our serve and pass game had to be stronger than theirs so we was going hard on the serves and it paid off," said Matautia.

The two teams were neck-and-neck in the opening game before Moanalua started to pull away on a pair of Engleman kills, 19-14. Mililani was able to cut it to two points, 20-18, thanks to two big plays by setter Zavier Lieb at the net, but Na Menehune was able to seal the deal thanks to a couple of Mililani errors.

Blocking became a key factor in game two as Moanalua's front line denied many of the Trojans' kill attempts. Six blocks after Moanalua went up 12-8 helped Na Menehune take full control of the set, with the final of the six blocks giving the defending champs a 24-16 lead. Mililani scored the next three points before a back row attack by Matautia ended game two.

Matautia also had his best game in set two with 11 kills, many of which came off Mililani's block.

"He's definitely a smart hitter," Ing said on Matautia.

Mililani, who hadn't dropped a set all year before Thursday, rose to the occasion in set three to stave off elimination thanks to a plethora of emotional kills that got the rest of the Mililani fans excited.

"I told them we had three more sets to play," said Ing. "That was my team that came out that third set."

After switching sides, Moanalua made a statement early in the fourth set to take a 3-0 lead. The Trojans scored two of the next three points, but a 6-0 run by Moanalua gave Na Menehune a commanding 10-2 lead. Moanalua led by as many as 10 points, 22-12 in the final set and went on to take the match in four games.

"In that third set, they got on top of us. I will admit and they beat us in that game. They were there mentally and physically and they had the crowd with them, but in the fourth set we knew we had to start strong and end strong," said Matautia.

Isaac Liva led the Trojans in the loss with 21 kills.