Moanalua outlasts Kahuku in five-set quarterfinal

Moanalua OH Katiana Ponce attempts to put a kill attempt past Kahuku's Adora Anae. Greg Yamamoto | SL

Erin Perez notched a match-high 19 kills and freshman Lia Gaogao added 13 kills and two blocks last night to help Moanalua outlast Kahuku, 20-25, 25-20, 25-15, 20-25, 15-7, in O'ahu Interscholastic Association girls volleyball playoff action.
Na Menehune improved to 13-0 in league play and will face Mililani (13-0) at about 7 p.m. Tuesday in an O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red Conference semifinal at McKinley. The Red Raiders fell to 11-3 and will play Eastern Division rival Castle (10-4) at about 7 tonight in a losers' bracket match at Farrington.
Under the tournament's modified double-elimination format, Kahuku can still work its way back into the title match, though it must defeat the Knights tonight first.
"We may see them again, I wouldn't be surprised," Moanalua coach Tommy Lake said.
The Red Raiders certainly took Na Menehune to the limit last night at McKinley.
They won the first set after taking the lead for good at 9-8 and building a 19-14 advantage with a 5-1 lead highlighted by sophomore Sinamoni Tonga's two blocks. Moanalua even the match by winning Game 2 and took a 2-1 match lead after a convincing victory in the third set, but Kahuku jumped out to a 5-1 lead in Game 4 and finished strong after Na Menehune later closed it to 18-17.
But in the fifth set, Gaogao slammed three kills and had one block to spearhead a 7-1 start, and after the Red Raiders closed it to 7-5 Moanalua finished them off with an 8-2 run.
"When we started putting our serves in, the game changed," Lake said. "We missed a lot of serves earlier in the match."
Katiana Ponce added 10 kills and one ace for Na Menehune. Tatiana Brown led Kahuku with 12 kills, Tonga added eight kills, two blocks and two aces and Pati Anae also had eight kills.