Moanalua's Jojo Kruize attempts to put a kill attempt past the Castle block. Peter Caldwell | SL

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SALT LAKE — The Moanalua girls' volleyball team made its regular-season debut under a new coach Wednesday night, but for the most part it picked up in 2014 where it left off last year.

Johanna "Jojo" Kruize put down a match-high 12 kills and Silerolia "Lia" Gaogao added eight kills to lead Moanalua to a straight-set win over Castle in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Eastern Division opener for both teams. A crowd of about 300 fans at Na Menehune's home gym saw the hosts win 25-17 and 25-21.

"It feels really good to get this win," said Kruize, a 5-foot-11 junior outside hitter. "We've been working hard in practice and we have a new coach this year, so it just feels good to win and it gives us a lot of confidence."

Na Menehune are coming off a year in which they finished second in the East, second in the OIA Red Tournament and fourth in the D1 state tournament.

Moanalua's new coach, Alan Cabanting, is not entirely a fresh face around the campus. Cabanting has coached the boys' team the past few years and took on the added responsibilities this year when longtime girls' coach Tommy Lake stepped away at the conclusion of last season.

"It is so different from coaching boys, but I'm having fun with them," said Cabanting, who led the boys to a league title and D1 state semifinal appearance last year. "I am very disciplined with them and I'm hard on them, so they're learning very quickly that a lot of the things that they were able to get away with prior they can't get away with now."

Except for the early part of game two, Na Menehune were firmly in command of the match. They opened game one with some tough serving from Gaogao that helped her team jump out to a 11-2 lead. The Knights answered with a 4-0 run , but Moanalua pulled away and won the first game handily.

Castle held an early 5-3 lead in game two, but Moanalua clawed back with a 7-2 run to pull ahead, 10-7. Shaney "Boogie" Tiumalu put down a cross-court kill and Na Menehune committed back-to-back hitting errors to tie it at 10, before the hosts scored 11 of the next 15 points to seize a 21-14 lead. The Knights got within 24-21 before Kruize closed out the match with a kill from the left side that went off the Castle block and out.

A big key to Moanalua's success Wednesday was its passing and defense, according to Kruize.

"I think (defensive specialist) Lindsey Ng, (libero) Joy Kurosawa and (defensive specialist) Erin Fujitani are awesome passers," said Kruize, who had seven of her kills in game one. "I know they're very fast and they go for every single ball, so they just pick everything up."

Kurosawa, who along with Gaogao was a First Team All-OIA East selection last year, recorded a team-high 17 digs and setter Bryanne Yasui added 11 assists and seven digs.

Cabanting was pleased with the offensive distribution by setter Emree Sato.

"We wanted to spread out our offense just a little bit more," Cabanting said. "We kind of know that when we set Lia, when we set Jojo, they're going to do good things for us, but now we want the other girls to do good things for us as well, so we're really working to get the middles more sets and get the opposites more sets so they understand that they need to start making plays as well."

Moanalua committed 14 hitting errors, including eight in game two. Arendia Ruiter pitched in with five kills and Pumehana Nedlic and Katy Ehnstrom added four kills apiece for Na Menehune (1-0).

Tiumalu had eight kills and Trystin Ramos six to lead the Knights (0-1).

"I knew coming into this year that we were going to be rebuilding, but I still think that we're still kind of jelling and trying to improve on camaraderie, not that I want to take anything away from Moanalua — they're a great squad, Alan is a great coach and they played awesome — but I feel good about the loss and it's one to grow on for us," said Castle coach Grant Tolentino, whose team finished fourth in the East last year and fell one win short of qualifying for the state tournament.

Both teams return to action Monday when Moanalua visits Farrington and Castle travels to Kaiser.