Punahou's McKenna Granato attempts a kill against Mililani. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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1101122138_PunMili_0529.jpg - Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Top-seeded Punahou came out of the gate furiously and let up briefly a bit in game three before eventually downing Mililani, 25-13, 25-16, 26-24, putting the Buffanblu back into the Division I title game of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Girls Volleyball Championships.

"We got early jumps and communicated real well." said Punahou head coach Peter Balding. "I thought we passed well, and that allowed us to spread the sets and put them a little on their heels as a result of that."

The Buffanblu ran away with both sets one and two, posting wire-to-wire wins in each.

"We kind of shell-shocked them a little bit in the first two games, didn't make too many mistakes or allow them in, but they started making plays in the third game." said Balding.

Set three played out with much of the same story for the match, as Punahou took early control, highlighted by a pair of aces by senior outside hitter Carly Kan to push the lead to 9-4.

"I'm just doing the best I can to follow through and make it tough but not too aggressive where its out of control." said Kan of her strategy at ther service line.

But with Punahou would go up 18-12 and looking to put things away, the Trojans would rally, getting back-to-back blocks by middle Samantha Fischer, followed by an ace by Emilee Craig to trim the margin to just one.

Then with Punahou at match point, a net violation followed by a hitting error would pull Mililani to within a point, prompting a timeout by the Buffanblu.

Another Punahou miscue out of the timeout would tie the score up at 24-all, but back-to-back kills by Kan and Kelly Matthews extinguished the Trojans rally.

"When I got in, I was little nervous, it was a tie, but i knew that my team got my back." said Kan. "So even if i made a mistake, we would keep going, we would keep fighting for that (win)."

Punahou will face Kamehameha in Friday's 7:00 p.m. final at Neal Blaisdell Arena, the fifth meeting between the two squads this year. The Warriors are also the only team to have beaten the Buffanblu, a 2-0 sweep at Hemmeter Fieldhouse on Sept. 28.

"We can't expect anything," said Kan of the prospects of defending the state title, "but we're just going to come prepared and hopefully really come with a fighting attitude and with the right mindset no matter who we're playing."