Kamehameha middle Azariah Distajo gets set for a kill attempt against Moanalua. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Moanalua's Zarin Augustiro (right) and Kamehameha's Cullen Mosher (left) joust for a ball at the net. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Kamehameha's Nick Ng attempts to put an attack past Moanalua's Reno Young and Zarin Augustiro. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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It was far from pretty, but it was enough to win.

Kamehameha got a match-high 20 kills from Nick Ng as it battled past Moanalua Friday in a semifinal match of the New City Nissan/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I Boys Volleyball State Championships.

A crowd of about 350 fans at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium saw the Warriors (17-3) win in four sets, 25-12, 25-14, 22-25 and 29-27 to advance to Saturday's 7 p.m. title match against rival Punahou.

The match was a tale of two halves. The Warriors dominated the first two games, but Na Menehune stole the third set before forcing extra time in the fourth.

“I'm happy that we got it done right now in the semifinals so we can play harder tomorrow against Punahou,” said Kamehameha senior outside hitter Cullen Mosher.

Warriors' coach Kainoa Downing credited Moanalua (13-5) for stepping up its game in sets three and four.

“They're good players, they're coached well, they're good players,” Downing said of Na Menehune. “They didn't play that well in the first two (games), they finally played to what they're capable of playing (in the games three and four). We all know it, my players are (club) teammates with them and (Moanalua) just said, 'You know what, I'm going to battle you and I'm going to take it to you. What do we have to lose?' They just brought it, they played more inspired, they played great volleyball.”

Moanalua, the Oahu Interscholastic Association champion, was led by freshman Austin Matautia's 14 kills.

“From the very get-go, I told these guys that we're a young team and we're going to have those mental lapses, we're going to have those mistakes, but we have to go down fighting,” Na Menehune coach Alan Cabanting. “We play on our emotions and when our emotions are high, we're going to play at our best and we showed it tonight in the last two games and we went down swinging and that's the most you can ask for.”

Kamehameha jumped out to a 12-7 lead in the opening set and went on to roll, 25-12. The second game was more of the same as the Warriors rolled to a 16-11 lead and went on to win, 25-14.

However, Moanalua rallied in the third set. It used a 3-0 run to knot it at 17-all and held off a late charge by the Warriors to hold on for the 25-22 win.

“I think we actually did ease up a little bit.” Mosher said. “We kind of backed off on our serving on a little bit and our passing kind of fell apart a little bit. In the third game we kind of underestimated them a little bit, but we cannot do that against Punahou. We have to go even stronger (Saturday). Tonight was a good learning experience for us.”

The teams went back-and-forth in the fourth set, which featured 19 ties and six lead changes. A Kamehameha hitting error late in the set tied it at 27, however, Keahu Kaaa's kill down the left line gave his team the lead for good and a Moanalua error on match point sealed it for the Warriors.

“As soon as the emotion started to kick in, they started to play at their best,” Cabating said of his squad. “With such a young team like this one and the inexperience that we have, we couldn't have that one person that would put balls away for us all the time, so they knew they had to play as a team and they had to have a lot of energy and they came back those last two sets to really fight as hard as they could.”

Mike Horita registered 15 digs and Puna Kaniho dished out 53 assists for Kamehameha.

Austin Amian led Moanalua with 12 digs and Zarin Austiro notched 35 assists.

Downing said his team must up its game against the Buffanblu Saturday.

“We have to play intelligent, consistent, skilled volleyball,” Downing said. “(Punahou is) a great team – they've beaten us – so we have to bring a strong game against them and hopefully we can. Hopefully getting beat the last two times we played them hasn't hurt us, but we'll see.”

The Buffanblu and Warriors have met five previous times this season. Punahou, which which has won three times, beat Kamehameha in a five-set thriller just seven days ago for the Interscholastic League of Honolulu title.