Kaiser's Makena Kaneaiakala (right) blocks a Maoanalua Karson Cruz (left) kill attempt. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Kaiser's Joe Hoddick (8) prepares to strike the ball against Moanalua. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Moanalua's Karson Cruz (center) knocks the ball between a pair of Kaiser blockers. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Kaiser's Casey Bolda (5) drills a kill past Moanalua's Hadrian Paulino (3) for a point. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Senior Casey Bolda and junior Christian Sele combined for 34 kills to lead Kaiser to a four-set victory over Moanalua, 25-17, 19-25, 25-22, 30-28.

The win sets the Cougars up with the Mustangs, who toppled McKinley in a four-set match of their own, in Thursday's Championship bracket finale, with the winner earning a spot in the OIA Red title game.

"Christian really came in and stepped up, helped me carry the team and it made the biggest difference," said Casey Bolda of the performance of the 6-foot-1 Sele.

Sele played extended minutes in the final two sets, racking up 11 kills and 3 digs, and relieved at least some of the pressure off of Bolda, who notched a match-high 23 spikes.

While Kaiser won fairly easily in the first set, Moanalua returned the favor in the second, leading virtually the entire way in the set to even the match at one-all.

The third set was a see-saw affair through the midway point, but the Cougars sized control in the back half of the set, pushing the lead out to 23-19 on back-to-back kills by Sele. Na Menehune managed to string together three natural points to make things interesting at 24-22, but a Riker Kasamoto to Sele set-and-swing gave the game to Kaiser, 25-22.

Faced with a must-win situation in set four, Moanalua was equal to the task, grinding out a 21-17 lead late in the fourth thanks in large part to the arm of freshman Austin Matautia, who racked up a set-high 10 kills, nearly half of his team-high 22 for the match.

Kaiser would not go away however, and vaulted into the lead at 25-24 on a Bolda kill off of an assist by Kasamoto, forcing a Moanalua timeout.

Down the stretch, Na Menehune turned back the Cougars on three consecutive set points, but with the score 29-28 in favor of Kaiser, a Moanalua kill attempt from the outside sailed just wide to end it.

"We just always believed that we could do it and we did whatever we could to pull out the 'W' on this one." said Sele.

Kaiser libero Mason Ohta had a game-high 15 digs and also added 5 assists, Joe Hoddick had 7 kills, and birthday boy Billy McGivern added 6 kills. Kasamoto had an incredible 47 assists to go along with 9 digs, and Makena Kaneaiakala added 5 kills and 3 blocks.

Na Menehune setter Zarin Augustiro notched 43 assists, 4 kills and 3 digs, and Karson Cruz added 9 kills and three blocks in the loss.