Mililani's Sarah Liva spikes the ball over the next in the first match against Moanalua. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Mililani's Ashlee Vaoifi had 11 kills on the night in the Trojan's 3-0 set win over Moanalua. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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It may not have been the opponent it expected, but it mattered little to the Mililani girls volleyball team.

Led by a slew of seniors, the Trojans overcame a slow start to power past Moanalua in straight sets Wednesday night to lay claim to their second Oahu Interscholastic Association Red Conference championship in three seasons.

Ashlee Vaoifi notched a team-high 11 kills, while Sarah Liva added 10 and Jay Kapowai eight for Mililani, which improved its record to an unblemished 14-0 before a crowd of about 200 at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium. Vaoifi had four of her team's 10 service aces, as did Liva, who also was in on three blocks. Jordyn Keamo, a senior setter, dished out 30 assists and had two blocks.

"I'm so happy and excited, but I'm mostly happy for these girls, because they've worked so hard for this and they made it happen," said coach Val Crabbe, who also led the Trojans to their first OIA volleyball championship in 2011.

With the win, Mililani will draw a first-round bye and the league's top seed in next week's New City Nissan/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I State Championships on the Big Island. Moanalua, which dropped to 12-4 on the season, will also represent the OIA in the 12-team state tournament along with Kahuku, Farrington, Aiea and Leilehua.

Mililani took advantage of its distinct size advantage to not only outblock Moanalua, five to four, but also helped its backrow passers by slowing down opposing attacks at the net. The Trojans served particularly tough, which paid off to the tune of 10 aces against five service errors. Conversely, Na Menehune did not record an ace, but did have six service errors.

"We've been working on serving mostly during practice, because we know that that's the one thing that we can control during the game," said Kapowai, a senior outside hitter.

Mililani struggled out of the gate, committing seven of its 13 hitting errors for the match in game one. Moanalua took a 19-18 lead on a Trojan attack into the net, but Mililani scored three of the next four points to reclaim the lead at 21-20. Silerolia Gaogao tied it at 21 with a Moanalua kill, but consecutive net violation calls against Na Menehune put them behind 23-21. Arendia Ruiter pulled Moanalua within a point with her tip, but Liva and Vaoifi put down back-to-back kills to win game one for Mililani, 25-22.

Liva, a senior middle blocker, said Crabbe got the Trojans refocused during a timeout with game one tied at 17.

"We sat down and when coach called the timeout, she had us stand and she said 'You know what? This is all we've been working for, this is what we've been practicing for. You guys need to pick each other up, you need to stick together and you need to finish strong,' and that's what we did," said Liva, who had five kills, two aces and block in the opening set.

Mililani took a 5-0 lead in game two, only to see Moanalua tie it at 8-all. Na Menehune went up 13-11 following a 3-0 run, but the Trojans tied it at 14 soon after. A little later in the set, a Moanalua hitting error ignited a 4-0 Mililani run that made the score 19-16. The Trojans used a 6-3 run to close out game two, 25-20.

"We were really confident, but I guess we were overconfident in the beginning, because that's why we kind of struggled in the beginning," said Kapowai, who had five kills in the second game. "But after the first set and we got all the jitters out, we buckled down in the second and third sets."

Game three was all Mililani. The Trojans took a quick 5-2 lead and eventually extended their lead to 14-7 following a pair of Kayla Magbaleta aces. A 4-0 run a little later gave Mililani its largest lead of the set at 19-9. Moanalua answered by scoring five of the next six points, but held on to win game three, 25-16.

"It feels really good, because we worked really hard for this and we didn't train for nothing," Kapowai said. "We didn't do all this running during practice, like constant sprints, for nothing. We wanted this and we got it."

Moanalua committed 11 of its 14 hitting errors in the final two games, while Mililani had just four hitting errors during that stretch.

It was the fifth match in eight days and sixth match of the double-elimination tournament for Na Menehune, who is the Red East No. 2 seed and reached Wednesday's final by winning three straight elimination matches, including an upset of Red East champion Kahuku Tuesday. Despite the busy schedule, Moanalua coach Tommy Lake felt fatigue was not a factor.

"I think we're playing better volleyball right now, but Mililani — to their credit — has so much energy," Lake said. "They just bring it, they don't stop, they just keep coming. It's not just their top players like Ashlee, Jordan and Sarah, the whole team keeps coming so credit to them."

Mililani, which has dropped just one set all year, had not played since a four-set win over Kahuku Thursday and had already beat Moanalua in a sweep just eight days earlier in a third-round match.

Gaogao led Na Menehune with a match-high 13 kills, Johanna Kruize added eight, Marina Adolpho seven and Shaylah Kagehiro had 27 assists.