Roosevelt Rough Riders celebrate after surviving a five-set win over the Mules at Mililani High Gymnasium. CJ Caraang | SL

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MILILANI — No. 9 Roosevelt secured its first trip to the state tournament since 2013 with a pulsating five-set win over upset-minded Leilehua in the quarterfinals of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I boys volleyball tournament Thursday night. 

The set scores were 28-26, 18-25, 25-17, 26-28 and 21-19. 

Nathan Vo and Jordan Kan tallied 11 kills apiece to lead the Rough Riders (10-1) past the Mules (6-6) in the back-and-forth affair that lasted nearly two and a half hours in length. 

Roosevelt coach Kaui Mendonca was finally able to breath a sigh of relief after the final point — although his blood pressure likely rose a few points in the process. 

"That's heavy and when you're older, it's heavier," Mendonca joked. 

The longtime coach couldn't recall the last time the Rough Riders qualified for the state tournament. 

"No, I don't remember, but it's been a long time so we're cherishing it right now," he said. 

The win ended a nine-year state-tournament drought for Roosevelt and sealed their spot in the final four of the OIA tournament. 

"Yeah, that's nice because it took our whole team to finish up the game and I'm proud of them," said Mendonca, whose team has now won four in a row since it was swept by Moanalua on Apr. 5. 

It was the third time that the Rough Riders had a match go five sets this season; They've won each time. 

"You know, we made our mistakes — like we normally do (laughs) — but we've always done that all season long," Mendonca noted. "For some reason we just kind of make our mistakes, we come back and we fight; so I was proud of them for that, they kept fighting."

Roosevelt nearly squandered the opening set. It held a 15-10 advantage midway through game 1, but saw Leilehua storm back with a 10-4 run to pull ahead, 20-19. Ultimately, Mendonca's squad scored three of the final four points to take game 1, 28-26. 

The Mules used a couple of 4-0 runs to separate in the second set and even the match up. 

It was the Rough Riders' turn to pull away in the third set. They went on a 12-3 run to turn a comfortable 12-8 cushion into a commanding 24-11 lead. Leilehua reeled off six consecutive points, which led Mendonca to call a timeout, but Kawika Omerod finished off the set with one of his three kills in game 3. Omerod finished with nine kills on the night. 

The fourth set barely got started when Mendonca used his first timeout. After a lift call and an attack error into the net led to an early 2-0 deficit for his team, Mendonca quickly called for the stoppage in play. 

"I think it was just, I was hoping to reset them right away, you know, just not to let it go too far," Mendonca said. "I normally don't take timeouts too quick, I usually don't take timeouts at all if I don't have to, but that one it felt like I needed that one; I don't think it helped (laughs)."

Roosevelt led 23-20 after an ace by Danny Lieu, but Olosega Jennings answered for Leilehua with a kill from the right side off a back set from Hermis Weilbacher. It was the start of a set-ending 8-3 run that Leilehua used to push it to a deciding fifth set. 

The Mules seemed to have all the momentum early on in game 5. A double-contact violation on the Rough Riders gave Leilehua an 8-3 lead. Roosevelt eventually tied it at 10 and the teams traded point after point. 

A net violation on the Mules tied it at 19. Lieu then set-up Justin Toyama for a kill from the left side on the ensuing point to nudge the Rough Riders ahead. It was Toyama's only kill of the night. 

"We got some kids on the bench that come in — Justin Toyama came in — and we have the team to do that, where they can just take the place of somebody and kind of be productive," Mendonca said. 

Lieu served up an ace on match point — his fifth of the match — to seal the win for Roosevelt, the No. 2 seed out of the Eastern Division. 

Mendonca said that he had not seen Leilehua prior to Thursday, but kind of knew what to expect. 

"I mean, Leilehua's got a great tradition of volleyball, so I'm not surprised at all. I knew it would be a tough fight and they always play well," he said. 

Christian Johansen put down a match-high 19 kills and Ghreysen Scully had 16 to pace the West third-seeded Mules. 

"I'm proud of my guys; we didn't give up," Leilehua coach Lawrence Cantero said. "Win or lose, they played their heart out and I tell them not to dwell on anything and we always learn to move on."

Cantero's squad had four shots themselves at match point, but were unable to finish off their opportunities. 

"Yeah, the game could have gone either way and the experience showed at the end, I think, because I have a very young team that a lot of them don't normally play year-round, but we play well for what we have," Cantero said.

The Mules had more total team blocks (12 to 8) and service aces (12 to 11) than the Rough Riders. 

Leilehua, which was coming off of a three-set win over Farmington in Wednesday's first round of the 12-team OIA tournament, will play Castle in a fifth-place semifinal Monday, 7 p.m. at Kaimuki. 

The Mules can secure a state tournament berth with a win over the Bulldogs. 

Roosevelt will next play No. 6 Mililani (11-0), the top seed out of the West, in a semifinal-round game Monday at Radford's Jim Alegre Gymnasium. That match will follow the first semifinal between Kaiser (10-2) and No. 5 Moanalua (11-0) at 5:30 p.m.