The Moanalua bench celebrates after a point. Na Menehune took down Waipahu in straight sets in the OIA semifinals. Peter Caldwell | SL

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04271635_1604_Waipahu_014.jpg - Peter Caldwell | SL

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ALIAMANU — Experience in high-pressured situations helped defending champion Moanalua sweep Waipahu Tuesday night. 

Senior outside hitter Austin Matautia pounded out a match-high 24 kills to help Na Menehune (13-0) down the Marauders (10-2), 25-18, 25-21 and 25-18, in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I semifinals at James Alegre Gymnasium. 

It was Waipahu's first loss of the year since dropping its season-opener to Mililani.

Moanalua, winners of the last five OIA titles, will face off the Trojans in the championship final in a battle of two undefeated teams.

"It feels good to go back (to the championship game) all four years in a row," said Matautia, who added seven digs and three aces. "A lot of teams don't realize how hard it is to do that and just being able to get that feeling again was awesome."

Nalu Demello was the next highest scorer for Na Menehune with five kills. Senior Seyj Engleman, who was playing through a back injury, added three kills and two solo blocks. Middle Justen Fong also had three kills and Kalai Leopoldo and setter Zach Miyamoto had two kills each. 

Miyamoto had 34 total assists before the evening was over. Libero Zach Kagehiro added 11 digs and two aces.

Although Na Menehune's passing was out of sync for most of the match, the defending champions were able to pull away late in all three sets to sweep the Marauders. 

"I think it's the mental toughness portion," said Moanalua coach Alan Cabanting. "It's great when you have that many seniors on the court that can mentally stay in it. All our preparation that we had throughout this season, playing tough matches really helped us."

Moanalua also were aware of the many Waipahu fans in the audience. 

"We realized that Waipahu rides off emotion," said Matautia. "We had to get on top of them in order to stay above of them. In the beginning of the match it was back and forth, and as the rallies got longer, we realized that we had to get the ball down in order to win."

Jeminae Solomua had 12 kills and Andrew Simanu added nine more with two blocks to lead the Marauders' offense. Waipahu libero Ejay Tagabi also added a match-high 12 digs in the contest.