Punahou's Carson Tangonan attempts to get a kill attempt past the Hawaii Baptist block. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Hawaii Baptist's Brett Miller puts a kill attempt past the Punahou II block. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Hawaii Baptist's Caleb Fisher digs a ball against Punahou II. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Punahou's Jessie Torres winds up for a swing against Hawaii Baptist. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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Punahou's Pono Kaaa attempts a swing against Hawaii Baptist. Tyler Guieb | Special to SL

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NUUANU — Pono Kaaa put down a match-high 13 kills and Jessie Torres added 10 to lead visiting Punahou to a three-set win over Hawaii Baptist in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II boys volleyball match Monday night. The scores were 25-20, 20-25 and 25-13.

The Buffanblu completed the regular season with a perfect 9-0 mark while the Eagles suffered their first loss to fall to 7-1. It was the first time either team had gone more than two sets.

"This was one of those matches that the boys definitely got up for," Punahou coach Mike China said. "They get excited to play a good team like this. I'm happy they played hard and I'm proud of them."

The teams split the first two games with Punahou winning the opening set 25-20. Hawaii Baptist won game two by the same score to even the match and send it to a third set.

Kaaa led the way for the Buffablu in the final game, recording six kills in the set. He also had two blocks and an ace in the match.

A Punahou serving error cut its lead to just 11-9 in game three before Kaaa had a kill and followed that up with an ace to ignite an 8-2 run that made the score 19-11.

China said the key in the deciding game was a change in the lineup after set two.

"I think what helped is moving (Torres) to opposite, which helped free up the block and (Kaaa) a little bit," China said. "(HBA was) tending to camp out on those two guys and we were able to make the adjustment. My coaches did a good job recognizing that and we were able to free him up a little bit."

Hawaii Baptist ended the Buffanblu run on a kill by Isaac Liva from the right side, but the visitors scored six of the final points to close out game three 25-13 and the match.

"We were flowing — me and (setter) Tyler (Mar) and when we're on the same page, we do really good together and good things happen," Kaaa said.

Mar had 32 assists for the Buffanblu, who had 16 hitting errors and 10 service errors.

Eagles' coach Teoni Obrey also pointed to Punahou's lineup change as one of the deciding factors in the match.

"They did a really good job in the third set of moving (Torres) to the opposite and we didn't' adjust quick enough to that and once they took a lead on us, we just didn't have the fight and the heart to work our way back," said Obrey, who has led HBA to the last three D2 state championships. "We're just making a ton of errors right now, so we've just got to clean it up on our side of the net."

Caleb Fisher had eight kills and a n ace, Brett Miller chipped in seven kils and four blocks and BJ Hosaka had 18 assists for the Eagles, who committed 19 hitting errors and four service errors.

It was the second time the teams faced off this season.

"We played them previously in the Iolani tournament, so we kind of knew each other, (but) this was for the regular season," Kaaa said of the Eagles.

Although Punahou won the ILH regular-season title, it is ineligible for the Division II state tournament. The Buffanblu are, however, allowed to participate in the ILH single-elimination tournament, which gets underway next week.

"We played them last year and it was a good game, so this was our championship," Kaaa said.

HBA concludes its regular-season schedule at home against Lanakila Baptist at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

"We're still trying to find our identity and what we're about — we kind of lost sight of it a little bit today — so I think maybe it is a blessing that we're going to have an opportunity to play again (Tuesday). I hope this loss builds some characters and some want-to from our guys."