Moanalua's Kelia Williams and Jojo Kruize turn back a kill attempt by Aiea's Kyra Kaloi. Na Menehune won in straight sets to advance to the OIA Division I semifinals. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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SALT LAKE — There was no stopping Moanalua Thursday night.

Led by Jojo Kruize's 17 kills and Lindsey Ng's 19 digs — both match-high marks — Moanalua coasted to a sweep of visiting Aiea in a quarterfinal match of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I girls volleyball tournament.

The scores were 25-10, 25-15 and 25-17.

Na Menehune, the reigning OIA champion and top seed from the Eastern Division, improved to 12-0 with the win and locked up one of six league berths into the state tournament. They will face East third seed Kalaheo, a straight-set winner over Leilehua earlier Thursday, at 5:30 p.m. in Tuesday's semifinal round at McKinley.

"They executed really well, they talked it out and this is what we've been waiting for from all of them," Moanalua coach Alan Cabanting said. "The communication was really there from defense to offense. That transition was well-executed today."

Kruize, a senior outside hitter, was the only player on either team to record double-digit kills. She also had four digs and three of Moanalua's nine service aces.
"Aiea is always a good team on the West side and we know that they're really good serving, they have really big girls that put balls away," Kruize said. "We just really had to fight this one and push."

Moanalua had runs of 8-2, 7-1 and 8-2 and was aided by six Aiea hitting errors to run away with the opening set.

Na Alii jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in game two thanks in part to a pair of Leleo Maiava kills from the left side. However, Na Menehune scored the next nine points — capped by one of Emree two aces in the set — to force a timeout.

Later in the set, Kruize served up three consecutive aces to stretch Moanalua's lead to 20-9 and closed out the game with her fourth kill of the set.

Moanalua used a 7-2 run to separate from an early 2-all tie in game three. Aiea never got closer than two points the rest of the way.

While Na Alii used all six of their timeouts (two per set), Cabanting didn't have to use any of his in the match.

"The senior leadership, especially Jojo, stepped up and didn't let the team get rattled whenever something didn't go our way," Cabanting said. "When they're executing like that and the leadership steps in, it didn't warrant anything from me to call a timeout."

Ng, a 5-foot-2 senior libero, was a stalwart defensively and also had an ace in game two.

"Lindsey is just such a leader," Kruize said. "She brings so much experience and positive energy on the court whenever she's on and she hustles for every single ball and I just love her."

It was the first match in eight days for Na Menehune, who had a first-round bye, while Aiea was coming off a three-set win over Castle Wednesday.

"We've been practicing quite a lot and we've been scrimmaging a lot, so this is pretty consistent for us throughout this tournament so hopefully we can keep it going," Ng said.

Leleo Maiava and Kyra Kaloi led Aiea offensively with six kills each and Trinity Atuatasi contributed a team-high 17 digs.
Aiea, the West fourth seed, fell to 8-4 and will play Leilehua in an elimination match Tuesday at Farrington.

KALAHEO 3, LEILEHUA 0: Siani Yamaguchi had a match-high 16 kills to go with nine digs, Riley Lynch added 11 kills and Syenna Masaki chipped in 15 digs to lead the East third-seeded Mustangs (10-3) past the West second-seeded Mules (8-3) in the early quarterfinal at Moanalua Thursday. Elisha Levasa had 14 kills and 11 digs for Leilehua.