---

Bigger isn't always better, as the Leilehua girls' volleyball team proved Wednesday night.

Led by Ashlee Vaoifi's match-high 14 kills, the Lady Mules escaped with a four-set win over Seabury Hall in a first-round match of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Division II State Championships at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium.

The scores were 26-24, 25-13, 21-25 and 25-21.

Leilehua, the O'ahu Interscholastic Association runner-up, improved to 12-5 while Seabury Hall, from the Maui Interscholastic League, fell to 7-5. The Mules will play tournament No. 4 seed and Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion Hawai'i Prep in a 5 p.m. quarterfinal Thursday at McKinley.

"It feels so good, I don't have much to say, but we practice hard everyday, coach doesn't let up on us at all," said Vaoifi, a freshman outside hitter.

Leilehua coach Larry Cantero said his team got its first look at the Spartans during pregame warm-ups.

"The preparation that we did was to work on what we needed to work on our side of the net: mostly ball control and our communication," Cantero said.

Even with the little scouting they were able to do, Vaoifi said it was beneficial to watch Seabury warm-up.

"We knew they were bigger than us right away, but we were trying to find"their weaknesses and we thought it was their defense," said the 5-foot-5 Vaoifi. "If we could keep balls alive on defense, we thought that we would be OK on offense."

Leilehua took a commanding lead at 20-12 in the opening set, but the Spartans reeled off eight consecutive points to tie it. Seabury forced another tie at 24-all after a back row kill by Ariana Emde, but Samantha Talaeai ended it with a kill and an ace on set point to give Leilehua the first set, 26-24.

The second set was all Leilehua after it fell behind early, 3-0. Seabury scored just six natural points while Vaoifi put down four kills and recorded three aces for the Mules, who ran away with the set, 25-13.

Seabury took an early 9-5 lead in set 3, but the Mules rallied to within three at 12-9. The Spartans answered by scoring five of the next six points to make it 17-10. Later in the set, Seabury stretched its lead to 23-14 after a Leilehua error, but the Mules scored the next six points to cut the deficit to 23-20. However, Lena Fox put away the 24th point for the Spartans and Regal Deen-Jackson's kill gave them the 25-21 win.

"We've got to be more consistent, we can't afford to let down," Cantero said, referring to the third set. "We need to be more consistent and not let those big leads get away from us."

Leilehua went ahead 4-0 early in set 4, but soon fell behind 10-7 after five straight Seabury points. Later in the set, a four-contacts violation against the Spartans tied it 18 and the teams battled back-and-forth. Facing a 20-19 deficit, the Mules benefited from a pair of Seabury errors sandwiched around a Tatiana Alailima kill to pull ahead 22-20.

Fox got a point back for the Spartans out of a timeout, but Kilaulani's ensuing attack went off the block and out and Seabury committed back-to-back errors to end the fourth set, 25-21, and the match, three games to one.

"Leilehua did a great job of putting the pressure back on us, but unfortunately we had a lot of unforced errors, too," Spartans' coach Scottie Zucco said. "I felt like in the third and fourth (sets), we had arrived and we were a little more competitive, but unfortunately we needed to do it in the first and second games."

Talaeai added eight kills for Leilehua. Kilaulani had four aces while Vaoifi added three aces and Alailima chipped in three blocks. Brandi Vierra led Seabury with eight kills and Deen-Jackson added six kills and four blocks.

Seabury finished second in the MIL behind Moloka'i, the tournament's No. 2 seed, and will play Kalaheo-Waimea loser in a 3:30 p.m. consolation match Thursday at McKinley.