CJ Caraang | SL

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Jojo Kruize put down 23 kills with 14 digs to help Moanalua to a four-set win over Kalaheo in a semifinal match of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I girls volleyball tournament at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium Tuesday night.

The scores were 23-25, 25-20, 25-15, 25-12.

Na Menehune improved to 13-0 and will face Kahuku in Thursday night's tournament final back at McKinley.

After blowing a late lead in game one, Moanalua seemingly grew stronger over the course of true final three sets. It got complementary performances from Emily Dulaney (11 kills), middle hitter Katy Ehnstrom (8) and outside hitter Angelica Hulett (7) offensively.
Moanalua coach Alan Cabanting lauded the play of Delaney, a 5-foot-8 sophomore setter and opposite.

"Today she showed even more range," Cabanting said. "She's really coming together. She's the one who came in last year during our championship game to give a little more relief from the other setter last year so she's been in this situation and now she's asked to become a playmaker now as opposed to a role player."

Dulaney had three aces, all coming in game three, and a block. Ehnstrom, Hulett and middle hitter Keila Williams (four kills) had two blocks each. Libero Lindsey Ng had 12 digs and back row specialist Hula Crisostomo contributed eight digs and two aces despite injuring an ankle early on.

"Second set came along and everybody knew Jojo was struggling so other people started to step up: (Bryanne Yasui) in that last set serving at a critical time, (Hulett) coming in big in the third set with hits from the back side and our middle coming in big in that third set and the fourth as well, and Hula coming back and serving some real tough serves there at the end," Cabanting said.

The teams were tied at 18 in game two before Moanalua used a 7-2 run to tie the match.

Game three was tied at 10 before Kruize rolled a shot from the back row to ignite a 7-1 run that was capped by a Crisostomo ace. Kalaheo got within 18-15, but Moanalua closed out the game and the match with a 7-0 run.

Cabanting said it took his team a little while to get comfortable after dropping just its third set of the season.

"I think the nerviness, the youth at the very beginning really showed, (but) as we got into rhythm and as we started to feel the flow of the game everybody started to come together and they started to really play as a team there," Cabanting said. "We talk about the youth of the group: there's three that are youthful and there's three that are seniors who lead on the court."

Na Menehune had just five service errors against their six aces and took the Mustangs' offense out of rhythm with tough serving.

"We were trying to get them short on a couple of the balls where they were getting to it and because they have big hitters that can transition to attack on the short ball, (so) we started to go deep and they struggled and we just went with it whether they could pass it or not," Cabanting said of adjustments he made to the serving game.

Moanalua recorded 57 kills, compared to 39 for Kalaheo. Cabanting said that is a result of its defensive effort.

"It's like we were so nervous that we couldn't move our feet and we were lunging; that's what happened in the first set," Cabanting said. "Midway through the first set, towards the end, we started to move our feet and our passing started to stabilize so that by the time the second, third set, fourth set came along, every pass that we needed to make we were moving to the ball instead of lunging."

Setter Emree Sato notched 25 assists for Na Menehune.

Outside hitter Syenna Masaki had 14 kills with 12 digs, defensive specialist/setter Leslie Sanchez-Arrelano had 18 digs with 15 assists and libero Bobbi Anduha added 17 digs for the Mustangs, who fell to 10-4 and will play Mililani in the third-place match at Farrington Wednesday.

Middle blocker Violet Subee and and outside hitter Riley Lynch chipped in five kills apiece. Subee added five blocks, while Lynch had two blocks and an ace. Opposite/setter Siani Yamaguchi had eight kills, eight digs, 11 assists and four blocks.

Kalaheo, the East third seed, won the OIA D2 championship last year before moving up a division. The loss snapped its five-game winning streak and was the second defeat this season at the hands of Na Menehune, who won the regular-season meeting, 2-1, on Sept. 14.

Moanalua, the East top seed, entered Tuesday as one of three undefeated Division I teams on Oahu, but exited as the lone survivor with Iolani (14-1) losing at Punahou (11-4) and Mililani (11-1) falling to East runner-up Kahuku (12-1) in the late OIA semifinal at McKinley.

Na Menehune are looking to become the first OIA team to win consecutive championships since Kahuku captured three