OIA Boys Volleyball
Na Menehune fight off Mustangs to retain crown


  



Wed, Apr 24, 2019 @ Radford [ 7:00 pm ]


FINAL  1   2   3   4   5      
KHEO (15-3) 19 25 24 24 - 1
MOA (14-3) 25 22 26 26 - 3

ALIAMANU — Max Slaughter put down a match-high 27 kills and DiAeris McRaven added 16 to lead No. 4 Moanalua to its second straight league championship with a four-set win over No. 7 Kalaheo at Radford's Jim Alegre Gymnasium Wednesday night. The scores were 25-19, 22-25, 26-24 and 26-24.

Na Menehune (13-1), the top seed out of the Eastern Division, captured the program's 10th Oahu Interscholastic Association boys volleyball crown — all coming since the 2009 season. It is their eighth league title in D1 and the seventh under coach Alan Cabanting.

The East second-seeded Mustangs (12-2) saw 11-game win streak snapped. Both of their losses this season have come against Moanalua.

"These guys have been working hard and we've had a lot of injuries, but I think today was one of those days where it all came together for them, so kudos to these guys for all the hard work they've put in all year," said Cabanting, the eighth-year Ne Menehune coach.

Slaughter, a 6-foot-2 senior outside hitter, and McRaven, a 6-foot-5 junior, accounted for the vast majority of the kills, but as Kalaheo coach Sivan Leoni noted, it was the precision passing of Na Menehune that allowed setter Cole Fukumitsu to operate the offense.

"They have those two big guns, but where I really see the value of Moanalua is they have excellent ball control, with an excellent setter and excellent defense, so putting it all together, those two attackers, they just add on to what they already have and I think that that's where they kind of topped us over on this match, was with ball control," Leoni said.

Libero Barron Paikai and defensive specialist Nick Au were instrumental in the back row, while Fukumitsu recorded 48 assists. Middle hitter Joshua Galeria contributed eight kills for Moanalua, which will have a first-round bye in next week's New City Nissan State Championships.

"I think Cole spread it a lot more than we usually do and that's really good for us because it opens up all the positions, so Cole being able to do that and guys being able to put balls away, it really helped us get this win," Slaughter said.

Just as Moanalua leaned on its go-to attacker in Slaughter, Kalaheo rode the right arm of Liam York. The 6-foot-4 senior outside hitter posted 19 kills and often times went swing for swing with Slaughter.

"They were just going at it. It's just that on our side we had, I think, the better passing when it mattered and we were able to put our serves together when it mattered, but those two were fun to watch," Cabanting said. "When they needed a kill, Kalaheo went to Liam and when we needed ours, we went to Max, especially in those tighter situations, but it also allowed guys like Josh and then of course, DiAeris on the back side, to be able to put a couple balls away for us and keep their defense honest as well."

The teams traded points in the opening set until Moanalua finally got some separation with a Slaughter kill through the seam and an ensuing ace from Fukumitsu to take a 20-17 lead. Fukumitsu put his next serve out, but went back to Slaughter for a cross-court shot on the next point and Slaughter's ensuing serve hit the top of the tape and fell in front of the Mustangs defense for an ace. Kalaheo then called for a timeout, trailing 22-18, but its struggles in serve-receive continued with the next two Slaughter serves resulting in passes that was too tight to the net for setter Reggaen Eugenio and led to a lift and net violation, respectively. Two plays later, McRaven closed out the 7-2 Na Menehune run — and game 1 — with a kill from the right side.

"That's one of the things we're trying to key on is that serve," Cabanting said. "We put a lot of teams out-of-system mode, or in situations where they have to attack from the outside. We also missed too many serves, but this time around we were lucky."

Moanalua had 10 service errors to three aces, while Kalaheo committed 11 errors and had four aces from the service line.

The Mustangs appeared to be headed for a runaway win in game 2 after an early 10-1 run, however, Na Menehune didn't go down without a fight. Despite trailing by nine points in the set, Moanalua pulled to within a point at 23-22 after four consecutive kills from Slaughter. Ultimately, Kalaheo closed it out with a Jorden Neufelt kill out of the middle and a Moanalua hitting error on set point. However, Slaughter and company did anything but hang their heads after the match was evened at a set apiece.

"I think that definitely gave us momentum into the next set. Even though I hit an error on the last point, I think we still carried on into the next set and really pushed ourselves to get the next point every time, because it was a close match," Slaughter said.

Kalaheo jumped out to a 12-8 lead after a 7-1 run that included four Tyler Wemple kills and was capped by an ace by Tyler Bowman. However, Moanalua pulled even at 24-all after a Mustang attack was wide. Eugenio was then whistled for a lift before Slaughter got a touch at the net on his kill out of the back row on set point.

Na Menehune went on a 6-0 run midway through the fourth set to take a 16-14 lead. Kalaheo answered with a 5-2 run of its own, which culminated with Anthony Caswell's solo block, to give it a 19-18 advantage. The teams went back and forth until Galeria put down one of his three kills in the set to make it 25-24, Moanalua. York then pushed a two-handed attack wide and out on match point to end it.

"This one was the most intense game I've played all season, probably the most intense game I've played my whole career for this team," said Slaughter, who was a sophomore when Moanalua lost to Mililani in the OIA final two years ago. "It was back and forth all game and I don't think it compares to any other."

Wemple finished with 12 kills and Eugenio notched 35 assists for Kalaheo, which was seeking its fourth league title and first since 2005. Neufelt had three solo blocks and assisted on two others.

The Mustangs totaled 11 teams blocks to 5 1/2 for Moanalua. Each team committed 18 hitting errors.

"I felt that we played well. That was definitely the best match of the season for us, so we peaked at the right time," Leoni said. "I felt that we had good scouting on Moanalua, (but) we ended up making several crucial mistakes every game — just a few of them — to lose those games."

It was the second meeting between the teams this season. Moanalua swept Kalaheo, 25-13 and 25-17, back on March 6 in what was just the second regular-season match for both teams. York did not play for the Mustangs that day.

Kalaheo will host Farrington Monday at 6 p.m. in a play-in game, while Moanalua will open state tournament play in the quarterfinal round Thursday, against the winner of Wednesday's Mililani-Lahainaluna match. That match will take place at 7 p.m. at Radford's Alegre Gymnasium.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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