Punahou's Christian Hong puts down a kill attempt in a win over Iolani. Hong paced the Buffanblu with 19 kills. Brien Ing | SL

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KAPIOLANI — Defending state champion Punahou bounced back after dropping the opening set to beat Iolani, 23-25, 25-14, 25-20 in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu contest at Iolani's Lower Gymnasium Tuesday.

The Buffanblu (1-0) last dropped a set to the Raiders (1-1) back on April 18, 2016 and Punahou coach Rick Tune felt there was a lot to gain from their opening season win.

Christian Hong placed a game-high 19 kills and Jack Duechar added 11 kills. Connor McInerny had 22 assists and Keegan Au Yuen contributed 14 assists.

"We had a freshman setter in the game because Connor (McInerny) missed the last couple days of practices. I thought Keegan (Au Yuen) came in a did a wonderful job in the first set all the way until the final points. Chalk it up for learning experience. I thought Connor did a nice job and that was a good learning opportunity for us. I thought the boys responded well," Tune said.

Punahou and Iolani traded blows in the first set that featured 14 ties and 14 lead changes. The Raiders took a 23-22 lead following a Buffanblu miscue and Kilo Scanlan's block gave Iolani a two point cushion. Jakob Kimura placed a kill, but the Raiders claimed set one following an attack error.

"It wasn't so much to do with them, but it was nice that the boys were able to be themselves and play to their level. That's more important. We're trying to figure out how good we can be and how close we can get to playing that way in matches. That was encouraging," Iolani coach Jordan Inafuku said.

Dropping the first set was a blessing in disguise for Tune's young squad.

"That was a gift," Tune said. "They (Iolani) just gave you a gift. Everyone knows we won a lot of matches in a row and sometimes you play not to lose and you play tight."

Iolani continued the momentum that carried over from the first set to jump out to a 8-3 lead, but Punahou roared back with a 6-0 run of their own to lead, 9-8 and pulled away for good to win the second set by double digits to force a third set.

"We were shooting ourselves in the foot and stopped any momentum we worked hard to generate. We told them we had to steady out a little bit. We know we can play good volleyball and we weren't playing it," Tune said of the difference between the first and second sets.

"That was definitely a good learning experience. They're learning from everything and if we're not learning, we're not getting better. They're on that trend and they're picking up everything they can," Inafuku said.

The Raiders led early on before the Buffanblu tied it at 8. Both teams traded service errors as Iolani led briefly by two, but Punahou again found a way to tie things up at 15. Hong led the charge to give the Buffanblu a cushion and Punahou would extend it to as much as five. Duechar and Claudio Clini combined for a block to end the match.

"I was proud the way we started the third set and got more to being ourselves and competed hard. That was a positive. That means they're learning quickly," Inafuku said.

"We were down, we came back. We're not always going to run over every opponent every single time. That shouldn't be the expectation. It should be to play good volleyball on our side of the net regardless of what happens on the other side. We have to do a better job shifting the focus, but we'll get there, we have a pretty young group," Tune said.

Kupono Browne had nine kills for Iolani and Shane Harimoto dished out 19 assists.

Both teams face off again at Hemmeter Fieldhouse on Mar. 19.

Iolani travels to Maryknoll a week from now, while Punahou faces the Spartans on Thursday, Mar. 7 at the Clarence T. C. Ching Gymnasium.

"There are no breaks. We have to focus on ourselves because there are a lot of good teams in the ILH," Inafuku said.