Farrington's Savanah Kahakai drives a kill past Waianae's Petesa Tuia and Raywyne Atiga for a point. Sean Nakamura | SL

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Back row or near the net, Savanah Kahakai could not be stopped and Farrington swept Wai'anae, 25-18, 25-17, 25-16, Wednesday night at the Richard Kitamura Fieldhouse.

It was first-round action of the O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red girls' volleyball tournament. The East 3 Governors will travel to Kahuku to play West 2 Kapolei at 5 p.m. in the quarterfinals The West 6 Seariders are eliminated from the tournament.

In the other opening-round match, West 4 'Aiea fended off feisty East 5 Kalani, 19-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-19. Na Alii will play East 1 Kahuku following the Kapolei-Farrington match. Kalani's season is over.

Tournament turns into double-elimination from the quarterfinals.

There was no stopping Kahakai, a 5-foot-8 senior outside hitter, who led the way with 22 kills. She hit lasers from the back row, smashed some from the outside and deftly dumped the ball in open spaces on the Seariders' side of the court. She even had two aces.

"She's been our horse the past two years," Farrington coach Reagan Agena said. "She's been training at a pretty high level for a bunch of years. She's had a bunch of great coaches helping her out. I'm grateful for everything they've done. Obviously, it makes it a lot easier over here."

But hard on the Seariders, who couldn't dig her spikes or were out of position her dinks.

"It kind of gives me an advantage because I can see the court when I hit, so they don't know what I'm going to do, hit or chip (at the ball)," said Kahakai, who transferred from Maryknoll after her sophomore year.

Although her jump hits from the back row were devastating, she said she prefers to hit from the net.

The Govs needed some time to find their rhythm. They trailed 10-3 at one juncture in the first set. Farrington had three net violations and Raywyne Atiga had two solo blocks during that run.

Farrington, though, chipped away, tying the set at 13, 14 and 16. Then with Fuatino Manu serving, the Governors scored seven unanswered points. Wai'anae got two of them back to pull to 22-18, but Farrington closed the set with the final two points.

Farrington stormed out to a 9-3 lead in the second set and eventually opening the margin to 22-12 before Wai'anae came back with five consecutive points, four with Petesa Tuia serving.

The Govs stopped the streak with two points to take a 24-17 lead, but couldn't finish the Seariders off easily, as Wai'anae pulled to 24-21. But a service error by Wai'anae ended the set.

The Seariders kept the third set close early. It was 9-9 before Farrington started pulling away. A littler later, a 7-0 run increased Farrington's lead to 19-10 before Wai'anae got five in a row to pull to 19-15. But the Seariders could only muster one point the rest of the way.

"We couldn't stay consistent," Wai'anae coach Wilhelm Wagner said. "Too much errors."

The tournament is best-of-five, as opposed to the regular season, which was best-of-three. Farrington swept its wins and were swept in its losses.

"This is the first match all season we had three games," Agena said. "We still have a lot of work to do. Kapolei was here (scouting), so they were watching, seeing what we were doing. We just have to perform better."