Moanalua's Tayli Ikenaga digs a ball in the first set against Farrington Monday night at Richard S. Kitamura Memorial Fieldhouse. Pete Caldwell | SL

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_18092503_DR2T0328.jpg - Pete Caldwell | SL

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KALIHI — The lights at Moanalua's gymnasium may have went out, but Na Menehune kept their competitive fire burning for a key OIA East win Monday night.

No. 9 Moanalua bounced back after dropping the first set and rallied from a 18-10 deficit in game two to hand No. 7 Farrington its first loss of the regular season before a crowd of about 200 at Richard S. Kitamura Memorial Fieldhouse.

Tayli Ikenaga had nine kills with 11 digs and three aces and Jeslyn Spencer added eight kills with eight digs to help Na Menehune improve to 7-1 atop the OIA Division I East standings.

Alexis DeBina-Bautista was also key with four kills, three of which came during the decisive third set. She put down the first two points of game three and had the match-ending kill as she hit .750 in the final stanza.

Na Menehune's defense also clutched up in the third set as they dug up Farrington's most efficient weapon in the last period of play. Khylene Pasion-Nau had seven kills on nine swings through the first two games, but had a negative hitting percentage in game three.

"As I tell everyone, this is a really young team. We're going to have to go through a ton of rollercoaster rides, but again it was teamwork today," said Moanalua coach Alan Cabanting.

"That first set got the better of us, the second set set showed our youth. We weren't mentally in it in the first half, then Jeslyn and the seniors started to step up, take control and have more confidence on the court. They started fighting for every point and then Alexis at the end stepped in again for us in the third set as Tayli and Jeslyn were solid throughout the entire match."

The match was originally supposed to be played at Na Menehune's gym, but a power outage of some type in the middle of last week moved the contest to the Governors' home court. In the meantime, Moanalua prepared for the matchup in unfavorable conditions as the team relied on outside daylight to practice in its gymnasium.

"Maybe it's a plus because they had to focus harder to see the ball," Cabanting said.

Whether or not practicing in adverse conditions helped Moanalua against Farrington, Na Menehune's past week of practice was very rigorous as they focused on their serving game.

The training regimen paid dividends against the Governors (6-1) as Moanalua recorded five services aces in the match, which all came after the first set.

Ikenaga's second ace of the match gave Moanalua a 7-6 lead in game three and had her final one of the night give Na Menehune a three-point lead. The two teams traded points after Ikenaga's third ace before libero Jaycie Kodama had an ace to jumpstart a 4-0 run to make the score 13-7 in Moanalua's favor.

"This whole week we've been working on serves and tough serving at critical times so they were doing pushups and burpees at a 30 second time frame where they had to get their serve in and they couldn't serve it easy, they had to serve it exactly the same way," said Cabanting. "If they couldn't, they were doing burpees or (running) lines. I think that helped a ton today."

Saryiah Kahakai put down a match-high 12 kills to lead the Governors in the loss.