Punahou sweeps past Kamehameha, 25-17, 25-20


Punahou's Larry "Tui" Tuileta puts a kill attempt past the block of Kamehameha's Savili Bartley. Eugene Tanner | SL
Tui Tuileta notched a match-high 20 kills tonight to help Punahou sweep Kamehameha, 25-17, 25-20, in Interscholastic League of Honolulu boys volleyball action.

A crowd of about 450 at Hemmeter Fieldhouse watched the Buffanblu improve to 6-0 in the ILH, a game and a half ahead of the second-place Warriors (5-2).

"We're a lot better team than we were a week ago," Punahou coach Rick Tune said. "They were as good in the first set as we could have asked, and 90 percent of the second set was as good as we could have asked."

And that was despite playing without starting middle blocker Griffin Bolan, who was ill but is expected to be back by this weekend.

Junior opposite Kupono Fey slid over into Bolan's spot and the Buffanblu did not appear to skip a beat in the first set, jumping out to an early lead and keeping Kamehameha at bay.

The Warriors stayed close in the second set and it was tied at 18-18 before Tuileta scored a kill off a left-side block to start a 5-0 run capped by his back-to-back kills that made it 23-18.�

Daniel Andrews then set up match point with a solo block and Fey's kill ended it.

"We hung in there for a while, but at that point (when it was 18-18), you've got to stay positive the rest of the way out," Kamehameha coach Kainoa Downing said. "Against a team like that, at the worst you've got to at zero (positive plays minus negative) and we had a bunch of negatives in that set that probably cost us 10 points."

Nick Andrews added six kills for Punahou, Sean Gruebner had five kills and Fey contributed four kills.

Kamu Grugier-Hill led the Warriors with seven kills, two blocks and two aces, and Cullen Mosher added five kills and one block.�