Kahuku takes long road back to OIA Red finals

Kahuku celebrates a victory over Moanalua and a return trip to the OIA Red title game. Peter Caldwell | Special to SL

Pati Anae spiked 10 kills and Tatiana Brown added five kills, one block and one ace last night to help Kahuku deny Moanalua, 25-11, 16-25, 15-12 in O'ahu Interscholastic Association girls volleyball playoff action at Farrington.
The Red Raiders improved to 14-3 in league play and will face Mililani (13-0) at 7 o'clock tonight in the OIA Red Conference finals at McKinley; the match will be televised live statewide on OC16. If the Trojans win, they will be awarded their first league championship and the OIA's top seed and first-round bye in next week's Division I state tournament.
Moanalua fell to 13-2 and will be the league's No. 3 seed, starting state tournament play in Wednesday's first round.
If Kahuku wins, the two teams will meet again Saturday in a winner-take-all match at McKinley.
"The girls should be ready," Red Raiders coach Kaniela Kalama said. "That's all they've been talking about."
Despite playing its sixth match in nine days -- all after an hour-long drive into town -- Kahuku came out like gangbusters in last night's first set, using a 9-0 run to turn a 5-4 deficit into a 13-5 lead. Sinamoni Tonga later had back-to-back aces to push the lead to 20-9, and a serving error. hitting error and net violation by Na Menehune helped the Red Raiders win going away.
"We've really been working on our blocking and our serving, and that really helped us in the first set," Kalama said.
Moanalua turned the tables in Game 2, however, jumping to leads of 4-1, 9-2, 15-3 and 17-4. Kahuku could not get closer than six points the rest of the way.
Na Menehune led 4-1 and 5-2 early in the third set, but the Red Raiders came back and eventually tied it at 7-7 on an ace by Ashley Mataele. Anae then had two kills to highlight a 6-2 run to make it 13-9 before Moanalua closed it to 13-11 on Erin Perez's kill.
That's when Brown nailed a spike that sailed way past the end line, but a touch was called on Na Menehune, putting Kahuku up, 14-11. After another kill by Perez closed it to 14-12, Anae ended the match with a shot that landed in the back row.
Tonga and Adora Anae each added four kills, with Tonga also notching two blocks and two aces. Perez led Moanalua with nine kills.