Kalaheo's Josh Ko puts down a kill attempt against Kahuku. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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McKinley's Brandon Walker (22) and Jerry Wu (12) rise up to block a kill attempt by McKinley's Pomai Cozo. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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McKinley and Kalaheo both claimed their spots in the championship bracket semifinals of the OIA Red playoffs, but the roads each took to get there were very much divergent.

While the Tigers needed five sets to stage a furious comeback over West second-seed Leilehua, 12-25, 22-25, 25-18, 25-18, 16-14, the host Mustangs cruised to a straight set win over Kakuku, 25-12, 25-14, 25-13.

Middle blocker Jerry Wu poured in 15 kills and 7 big blocks to lead the way for McKinley, who overcame a 24-kill, 12 dig performance by Leilehua's Robin Ramelb.

McKinley arrived with just over 30 minutes until the scheduled 5:00 p.m. start of the match against Leilehua, and for the first set and a half, seemed to feel the effects.

"A lot of us were sleeping on the bus, so I think that might have been a factor but my teammates really pulled through." said McKinley middle blocker Jerry Wu. "They're the reason why we won tonight."

McKinley got 11 kills from Devin Smith and 8 more from Brandon Walker and needed every one of those swings to counter the superb individual performances by Ramelb and setter Devin Ke-a, who had a match-high 35 assists to go along with 7 digs and 5 service aces.

The Tigers had difficulty getting much of anything going in set one, and were held to just three kills in the opening game. And while the offensive productivity rose in the second, the Mules were equal to the task, led by Ramelb and Dakota Soliai who slammed down 9 and 4 kills respectively to give the West second seed Leilehua a 25-22 win and a dominating 2 sets to none advantage.

Having their backs against the wall was perhaps just the wake-up call needed for McKinley, particularly on its front line, where the Tigers' block erupted for 7 blocks in a two game-stretch. The six-foot-five senior Wu grew stronger as the match progressed, and he was clearly the go-to guy, collecting 11 of his 15 kills and 6 of his 7 blocks down the stretch.

"He's our go-to hitter, he knows how to put the ball away and he's smart with his shots." said setter Devin Lee, who assisted on 29 of the 32 kills put down by the Tigers.

And of the seven blocks registered by the six-foot-five Wu, two were on set point, including the match-winner.

"I just kept my position, went straight up and pressed over. I didn't think about it so much, I just did what I had to do." said Wu of his block that ended it in set five.

In contrast to the opening match of the night at Kalaheo High School gymnasium, Kalaheo made fairly quick work of a depleted Kahuku squad, who played without starting outside hitter Micha Tanuvasa-Maiava and setter Quayd Ah You.

Mustangs setter Silila Tucker was a one-man wrecking crew in sets one and two, racking up an monster stat line: 5 kills, 3 aces and 18 assists.

"I like to get our team up get em going. Coach always wants me to start the energy, start the tempo, so I just try to get things going and play consistently." said Tucker.

During the two sets were nicely spaced amongst 5 different hitters, with Sam Orcutt slamming down 5, Josh Ko and Kupa'a Harrison with 4 each and Kainoa Peterson registering three.

Kalaheo used the 2 sets to none advantage to give some playoff playing time at setter to Josh Ko and a number of reserves, including Nai'a Singlehurt and Vince Kahalepau'ole-Bizik, who notched two kills each in set three.

"We need Josh to work on his setting and get some game-time experience, so its really big." said Tucker.

The Red Raiders were held to just 8 kills in the match.