Brian Bautista | SL

---

Brian Bautista | SL

---

Laakea Kamahele put down a match-high 20 kills to lead No. 8 Le Jardin to its first boys volleyball state title with a 25-18, 25-9 and 25-21 sweep of Pearl City Friday night. 

The title match of the New City Nissan/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II State Championships saw the Bulldogs (16-1) make relatively easy work of the previously-undefeated Chargers (14-1). A crowd of 689 fans were in attendance for the match — which took only 76 minutes — at the Cannon Activities Center on the campus of Brigham Young University-Hawaii. 

Kamahele, a 6-foot-4 senior outside hitter, hit .548 for the match. He committed just three errors in 31 total swings. Kamahele also came up with five digs, two aces and was in on two blocks. 

"It feels amazing. I just wanted to show all my gratitude to all the people that came out today, to all my teammates and coaches and our families," Kamahele told Spectrum OC16's Jordan Helle in a televised postgame interview. 

The Bulldogs hit a blistering .479 as a team. Jake Heidsieck had eight kills with six digs, Kala Fraser posted seven kills on 10 swings without an error, to go along with five block assists and one solo stuff. Omari Harris put away five kills on six swings without an error, Tyson Parker contributed seven digs and two aces and Brennan Nakayama dished out 39 assists and five digs in the win. 

Le Jardin hit .483 in a competitive first set. However, it completely dominated set 2, when it hit .615 and held Pearl City to a minus-.103 attack percentage. The Bulldogs were aided by nine hitting errors by the Chargers in set 2. 

Set 3 was more of the same out of first-year coach Makana Wade's squad, which hit .393 in the final frame. 

"This journey's been amazing. We're such a senior-led team and I thought tonight really showed that. Our seniors stepped up and played well," said Wade, son of University of Hawaii men's volleyball coach Charlie Wade and brother of Rainbow Warriors' sophomore opposite Kainoa Wade. 

Makana Wade told Helle that his father gave him a brief — very brief — pep talk earlier in the day. 

"When I woke up this morning he walked in and he says to me, ‘We win championships in this house.' That's the only thing he said to me," Wade laughed. 

Josiah Talamoa and Reven Otsuka paced Pearl City with 16 and 10 kills, respectively. Otsuka also registered a team-high five digs and Marley Ngirmidol had 29 assists in the loss. 

Le Jardin had 28 digs to Pearl City's 15. The Bulldogs racked up seven aces and did not surrender one to the Chargers and also held a 7-1 advantage in total team blocks. 

"We've been trying to play a high level of volleyball, not just physically, but mentally. I feel like the last four years we've grown a lot with that and this year especially, we set our goal and we reached it," Kamahele said. 

Pearl City, the Oahu Interscholastic Association champion, hit just .146 for the match. It was coming off of a five-set win over Maryknoll in Thursday's semifinal round. 

The Chargers were seeking their second state championship. They last won the D2 state crown in 2022. 

Interscholastic League of Honolulu-champion Le Jardin won its final 11 matches of the year, including a semifinal sweep of Hana Thursday night. 

The start of the match was delayed due to the Bulldogs' late arrival to the venue. It took them more than three hours to get from their Kailua campus to the Laie due to road closures as a result of severe weather across Oahu Friday afternoon. 

"With this group, there was no way we were not playing this match tonight," Wade said.