Mililani's Manase Fetulimoeata (13) puts down the final kill in the third set to complete the sweep against the Golden Hawks. CJ Caraang | SL

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MILILANI — Manase Fetulimoeata and Brayden Yadao put down 12 kills apiece to lead Mililani to a sweep of visiting Nanakuli in a meeting of undefeated boys volleyball teams in the Oahu Interscholastic Association's Western Division Wednesday night. 

A crowd of about 300 fans saw the seventh-ranked Trojans improve to 6-0 with the 25-18, 25-23, 27-25 victory over the 10th-ranked Golden Hawks, who fell to 5-1. 

Mililani coach Gabby Maunupau was pleased to see his team pass what he called its first big test. 

"Definitely. I mean, talk about just phenomenal hitting and great setting — yeah, what a match. We anticipated Nanakuli being our biggest competition, (but) any team is," Maunupau said. "I think for us, it's just a mental bear that we gotta be able to push through, especially against tougher teams."

While the Trojans leaned on their pair of pin hitters in Fetulimoeata and Yadao, they were also able to limit the Golden Hawks' production out of their middle attack. It started at the service line, Maunupau said. 

"I think focusing on our serving — serving certain areas and certain seams to put them in situations that maybe they didn't want to be in — I mean, you look at their offense, they have a complex offense, they got a great coach, great team and it's hard to stop them. When they're in system it's scary, so I'm very happy with it, for sure," Maunupau said. 

Nanakuli coach Junius Wong agreed with the assessment of his counterpart. 

"I think they served pretty tough to definitely neutralize our middle. We couldn't be as effective as we'd like to, which would definitely have opened up a little more offense for us as a group; I think Mililani did a good job of executing their game plan," Wong said. 

While Mililani tallied just three aces — two of them by Fetulimoeata — it committed only four service errors. Conversely, Nanakuli had two aces against eight service errors. 

Fetulimoeata's first kill was part of a 4-0 run for the Trojans early in the opening set. They went up 11-8 on an ace by Brycen Yadao and later stretched it to an 18-11 lead after a 6-1 run that included three attack errors and a ball-handling violation by the Golden Hawks.

Mililani closed out the first set with Fetulimoeata's kill from the left side that went off of a Nanakuli double block and out. 

The teams went back and forth early in set 2 before the Trojans found some separation with runs of 5-0 and 4-0 to force a Nanakuli timeout at 17-11. However, the visitors answered with a 7-3 run that led to a Mililani timeout at 20-18. 

Elward Westbrook's kill from the right side off the block and out cut the Trojans' lead to 24-23, but Fetulimoeata finished off set 2 with a cross-court kill off an assist from Brycen Yadao. 

The third set was a game of runs. Mililani used a 5-0 run to take an early 9-5 lead. The teams exchanged 4-0 runs later in the set — which included 17 attack errors between them, 12 by the Trojans alone. 

Wong called a timeout with his team facing a 20-15 deficit, but the Golden Hawks responded with a 10-4 run to pull ahead, 25-24 — which led to Maunupau burning his second and final timeout of the set. 

Maunupau said the reason for the timeout was two-fold: give his players a breather and remind them of the game plan. 

"I love setting our secondary (hitters), (but) once in a while when that pressure comes, we gotta focus — just like any other team — to our primary attack, just to give them an opportunity," he said. "It was kind of a roll of the dice saving that timeout — because I wanted to call it earlier — but I think waiting made a difference to give them that last second of breath and maybe put a little pressure on the server as well."

The Trojans pulled even at 25 on Brayden Yadao's kill on a shot down the right line off of a backset from his brother Brycen. A center-line violation against the Golden Hawks followed to set-up Mililani's second chance at match point. Just as Maunupau instructed during the stoppage in play, the final set went to Fetulimoeata on the left side, who put his 12th kill down in the middle of a trio of Nanakuli players in the back row to close out the match. 

Wong said that once the Mililani outsides got heated up, it was difficult to contend with. 

"Yes, I mean, their outside hitters are very terminal. They just went to their strengths, which we figured that out maybe a little too late — like going to our outside hitters a little bit more often, or to our best players earlier," he said. 

Maunupau said that he was happy to see his team get tested by the Golden Hawks, especially in the third set. 

"I think it's good for us," said Maunupau, whose team has only dropped two sets all season. 

He went on, "I think we're in a situation where we're definitely working on those second and third and fourth opportunities where we cannot shut down because we get blocked and that was a big focal point for us that we focused on this week because I think against Kapolei, we get blocked, we make an error and then we shut down for three or four points, so it was extremely important for us, for sure."

The match against the Hurricanes — in which his team dropped the opening set despite a double-digit lead — has spurred a sense of urgency amongst his players, Maunupau said. 

"Well, I think the good thing was these guys have been hungry since Kapolei and I've been testing them, you know, pushing their limits to get them to understand the game at a different facet and looking at different situations and improving every week, because they know what's going to be expected when we play against a Moanalua, tough teams on the East side and even on to states, so they're constantly working and asking questions and, I mean, you can see the difference; it's a completely different team now for our side," Maunupau said. 

Brycen Yadao finished with 16 assists, five kills, two block assists and an ace. James Saffery chipped in with five kills, two block assists and one set assist and Kalei Della Sala notched eight assists in the win. 

Mililani had 22 attack errors in all and five team blocks, while Nanakuli finished with 18 attack errors and two team blocks. 

Makoa Kekaula Van Gieson had a team-high nine kills and an ace and Hansen Salausa-Kaawa and Carl Maa added five kills apiece and three block assists between them for Nanakuli. Pierce Kaeo contributed four kills, Westbrook three and Pookela Iokepa-Park dished out 24 assists in the loss. 

The Division-II Golden Hawks took the loss in stride. 

"I think we were approaching this match the same way we would approach any match," Wong said. "We just came off the Iolani tournament and it was a little rough, but I feel like that helped us grow to prepare us for this match. Obviously not the result we wanted, but I feel like we did a really good job with steering the ship, trying to keep us steady as much as possible."

The Division-I Trojans moved into sole possession of first place in the OIA West standings with the win. 

Both teams next play on Monday at 6 p.m. Mililani will visit Waialua, while Nanakuli will travel to Waipahu.