Punahou's Belle Iosua puts down one of her 14 kills against Iolani Tuesday night. The Buffanblu won in five sets to improve to 7-2 and capture the ILH Division I first round title, along with a berth in December's state tournament. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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ALA WAI — Punahou punched its ticket to the state tournament Tuesday night. 

Jaclyn Matias dished out 50 assists and four different players recorded double-digit kills to help the top-ranked Buffanblu outlast No. 3 Iolani in five sets in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu girls volleyball match at the Raiders' lower gym. The set scores were 25-11, 19-25, 25-9, 21-25 and 15-9. 

The win secured for the Buffanblu (7-2) the ILH first-round title, the top seed in the second round (double-elimination tournament) and most coveted of all, one of the league's two spots in December's Division I state tournament.

"We're so stoked. It's just an amazing feeling after this one," said Matias, a senior setter.

The Raiders (5-4) could have forced a three-team playoff with Punahou and No. 2 Kamehameha (6-3) for all of the above with a win Tuesday. Instead they saw their modest two-game win streak snapped; they will be the third seed in the double-elimination tournament, which gets underway on Nov. 9. 

Punahou also took the rubber match of the three-match series against Iolani. After it was swept in the first meeting on Sept. 23 at Iolani, Punahou claimed the rematch back on Oct. 12 at Hemmeter Fieldhouse in four sets. 

Now the Buffanblu will have two weeks to rest and recuperate from the rigorous ILH first round  before the tournament begins. But that's not exactly how they're approaching it. 

"It's such an awesome feeling getting this bid, but there's always work to do and even though we have this bid it doesn't mean we can stop working hard in practice in the gym, working together and just keep going from there," said senior middle Belle Iosua, who put down 14 kills and served up two of her team's five aces from the service line. 

Punahou coach Tita Ahuna will sleep a little better Tuesday night knowing that her team will one of the 12 in the state tournament field come early December. 

"It makes me feel, not at ease, but just a little better knowing that we have that berth, but we still have to keep fighting," Ahuna said. 

The match played out like a soap opera: full of wild twists and hard turns. 

Punahou cruised to a 25-11 win in the first set, thanks to a 14-3 run through the meat of it. Then it was Iolani's turn at the controls in set 2. 

The Raiders jumped out to a 9-2 lead, but then saw the Buffanblu charge back with a 10-2 run to pull ahead, 14-13. A few points later, the hosts tied it at 15 on a kill by middle Callie Pieper. That ignited an 8-2 Iolani run that included three Ambri Hanohano kills — two from the right side, the other from the left — and a pair of aces by Maya Imoto-Eakin that resulted in a 22-17 lead that proved to be insurmountable as the Raiders won set 2, 25-19, to even the match. 

Set 3 was simply Punahou domination, 25-9. The Buffanblu had two separate 10-1 runs in the set and were aided by nine service errors by the Raiders. 

Iolani refused to go quietly into the night, rallying a 25-21 win in set 4. The Raiders closed it out with an 11-2 run that included five Anuhea Hauanio-Lore kills from the left side. Punahou committed 10 of its 19 total hitting errors in set 4. 

But it was, yet again, a reversal of fortunes in the set 5, when the visitors scored three straight points with Iosua at the line. Her ace capped the run, but the Buffanblu scored six of the first seven points in the set and thereafter never led by fewer than three points en route the 15-9 final score. Middle Grace Fiaseu put the finishing touches on the victory with back-to-back kills; She finished with a match-high 17 kills and was in on eight total blocks. 

The duo of Fiaseu and Iosua combined for 31 kills and 13 total blocks. 

"That was one of our game plans, to get the ball to our middles if we can pass the ball well, and we did," Ahuna said. "Our middles did well — Grace, Belle — they did well for us tonight. Hats off to them."

Matias credited the passing of her back-row teammates, libero Melie Vaioleti surely among them, for laying the groundwork toward a solid connection with middles Iosua and Fiaseu. 

"A key to that was our passing, so all thanks to our defensive specialists and how they're getting us the ball and letting me and Belle just work up at the net together, so it was really great," said Matias, who is committed to the University of Hawaii. 

The Buffanblu got yet another double-digit kill performance from 6-foot-2 outside hitter and six-rotation player Lucky-Rose Williams (14).  

"Always," Ahuna confirmed. "She's a steady player."

Sophomore outside hitter Lulu Uluave tallied 10 kills, six of them coming in sets 4 and 5. 

"She's been really consistent with her defense, serve-receive, as well as hitting, she's been really effective, so that's been a crucial key to our team," Matias said of Uluave, who also had an ace and was in on three blocks. 

Ahuna, in her first year as coach of the team, was proud of the collective effort and production she got from her bunch. 

"I mean, everyone played well," she said, "and it's tough when you play a team like Iolani; they just come back at you every single point, so we needed to just play steady."

Of the pendulum-like swings between sets, Ahuna mostly credited the resiliency of the Raiders. 

"We just have to learn how to be more consistent in our play, but Iolani is a great team. You cannot discount them and they played their hearts out and I said from the beginning that we have to show energy, we have to be very scrappy and I think we did that in spurts, but we did a great job fighting back," she said. 

Outside hitters Hauanio-Lore and Senna Roberts-Navarro posted 13 kills apiece and setter Mokihana Tufono had 34 assists for Iolani, which played without middle Mari Lawton and outside Brooke Naniseni due to injuries. 

In lieu of traditional starting lineups, the seniors on both teams were recognized and introduced to the crowd of about 70 fans who were allowed to attend the match.