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PEARL CITY - With its win over Castle in the second round of the O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red Tournament, the Pearl City girls' volleyball team knew it had more reason to celebrate than just the victory itself. The Chargers swept past Castle 25-19, 25-23, 25-22 at their home gym Tuesday night to claim one of the OIA's six berths it receives in the state tournament.

Sophomore outside hitter Kaya Chong led the way for Pearl City with a match-high 14 kills and senior OH Keani Passi added 12 as it improved to 12-1. The Chargers advanced to a third-round match against Kahuku Wednesday. It will follow the match between Moanalua and Kaiser at 5 p.m. at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium. All four teams punched their tickets to the state tournament by winning Tuesday.

"We haven't made it (to the state tournament) in a while, so this was something that we were looking forward to," Pearl City coach Stephanie Shigemasa said. "We told our players that if they worked hard this was a possibility, so they're excited and I'm excited for them."

The Chargers controlled most of the first set, but were challenged by the pesky Knights in both the second and third sets. However, Pearl City answered each time Castle challenged and ultimately held off the visitors in a hard-fought match.

"Castle is a big team, they're a good team, so I think for us it was a confidence booster to be able to come back and win, especially in that second set when it was tied late," Shigemasa said.

Pearl City held a slim 9-8 lead early in the opening set before scoring seven of the next eight points to force a Castle timeout at 16-9. The Knight close within 23-19 after a lift call against the Chargers, but Chong scored the next two points on kills to close out set 1, 25-19.

"We just relied on how hard we practice, didn't get worried, trusted each other and played hard," Passi said. "I just did what I had to set to help my team win and (setter) Marie (Fujii) was getting me the ball, so I just tried to put balls down."

Passi put away two early kills in set 2 to give Pearl City a 6-2 lead, but numerous hitting and ball-handling errors kept the Knights in it. Tehani Umiamaka tied it at 13 for Castle on a kill, but the Chargers scored four straight to pull ahead 17-13. Kelsi Fernandez served five straight points for Castle, including a pair of aces, to make it a 19-17 Knights' lead.

Pearl City forced five ties the rest of the way in set 2, the last coming at 23, before Passi put away the final two kills of the set.

"She took it upon herself, she wanted the ball and so we just told (Fujii) to keep feeding her the ball and we were lucky to put some balls down," Shigemasa said of Passi. "It could have gone either way, we were fortunate that she was in the front row (during the rotation)."

Verna Lynch's lynch midway thru set 3 gave Castle a 13-12 edge, but Chong tied it with a line shot and Kacie Chinen served up back-to-back aces to make it 15-13 Pearl City. Later in the set, a Castle hitting error gave the Chargers' their 23rd point and a four-contacts whistle set-up match point two plays later. Lynch, however, kept it close with a kill and block solo to make it 24-22, but Chong ended the match with her 14th kill.

"At first we were a little nervous in the match, but we got more confidence as it went along," Passi said. "We really wanted to make it to states and we've been working hard in practice, so we deserve it."

Castle, which fell to 7-7, meets Kailua in an elimination match Wednesday. It will follow a 5 p.m. game between McKinley and Mililani.


KAHUKU 3, KAILUA 0: The Red Raiders (11-2) needed little time to dispatch the Surfriders (3-10) in a second-round game at Pearl City yesterday. Kahuku completed the straight-sets win 25-11, 25-11 and 25-7 in about 50 minutes to advance to play Pearl City in Wednesday's third round.

"We had a slow start and we didn't come out with very much energy, but we were able to pick it up and win," said Kahuku's Elizabeth Blake, who led her team with seven kills. "I think our offense sparked us because it gave us more energy, which picked up our defense."

Rachel Fonua and Pati Anae added six kills apiece for the Red Raiders, who finished second in the Red East. Kailua got four kills from Anolani Ramos-McCorriston.