SALT LAKE — Keahi Kaneakua closed his high school career the way he started it: as a state champion. 

Kaneakua, a senior outside hitter, recorded a double-double of 25 kills and 25 digs to lead Radford to its first boys volleyball state title by virtue of its thrilling five-set win over Kapaa Saturday night. 

The set scores of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Division II State Championship, played before a crowd of some 700 fans at Moanalua High School, were 25-20, 25-22, 25-21, 25-23 and 15-13. 

The Rams (11-4) were seeded fourth in the eight-team tournament and knocked off No. 5 seed Hawaii Prep and No. 1 seed Le Jardin en route to the championship final. In doing so, they became just the third public school to capture a D2 state crown since classification began in 2005 and just the second from the Oahu Interscholastic Association. 

"It's my last year and my last year with all these people and it's just a good feeling," said Kaneakua, who was selected as the tournament's most outstanding player. 

Kaneakua, interestingly enough, was on the roster for the only other D2 state champ from the OIA, when he helped Pearl City defeat Seabury Hall in the 2022 title game as a freshman outside hitter for the Chargers. 

"It means a lot. It definitely means that not only private schools can make it out to the end and the OIA can still keep up," Kaneakua said of this year's all-public-school final. 

Kaneakua amassed 71 total swings and committed nine attack errors for a .225 hitting percentage. No other Radford player took more than 24 swings. 

Longtime Radford coach Melanie Toloumu knew that even-keel Kaneakua would rise to the occasion for Saturday's championship match. 

"He works hard all the time and so for him I think it's just seeing the end but not being there yet and having to keep working and working and working toward it. I mean, he's a strong, resilient kid and I think based on the example that he sets for his teammates, they have kind of been able to lean on him when they needed it and I think they really trust him, both on the court and off and so I think that's part of where that gel and chemistry comes from for them," Toloumu said. 

Radford closed out the opening set with a 6-3 run, but saw Kapaa storm back to win sets 2 and 3, the latter finished off with a 6-2 run. However, during the brief intermission between sets 3 for 4, which her team's collective backs against the wall, Toloumu chose not to make any changes in terms of strategy or tactics, but rather remind her players to relish the moment. 

"I told them, ‘I'm gonna be honest, this is something that not everybody gets to experience' and so win or lose, the experience, period, is something that they need to enjoy and so I wanted them not to think about whether we were going to win or lose the match, but really to just play for moment," Toloumu expressed.

She went on, "I was trying to tell the seniors, 'This is going to be your very last set 4 of your life with the Radford Ram volleyball team, so make the most of it. Yeah, you're gonna mistakes but bounce back, enjoy it and try and learn from it along the way.' "

Kaneakua heard Toloumu's messaging loud and clear. 

"No matter what the outcome is, she wanted us to come out as good people, no matter what it is," he stated. 

The Rams found a way to stave off the Warriors in set 4. They trailed 23-21 late, but got back-to-back kills from Kaneakua as part of a set-ending 4-0 run. Mark Vallejo's tip over a pair of blockers found the court to even the match at two sets apiece and send it to a deciding fifth set. 

Set 5 saw the teams tied at seven different points, the last coming at 12-all following a Radford error. However, a Kapaa attack error on the very next play put the Rams ahead for good. Kaneakua followed with a cross-court kill from the left side to give his team match point. 

Curren Pope found the court with a roll shot to inch the Warriors back within 14-13, but setter Micah Kalima-Keohohina went to Kaneakua for the final point and Kaneakua tooled a shot off of the block and down to ignite Radford's celebration. 

Kaneakua said the end of set 4 provided a bit of momentum for the Rams going into set 5, despite the fact that they had to start down a point following a red card for rushing the court at the conclusion of the fourth set. 

"It gave us a lot of momentum, we just had to fight through whatever was coming against us, stay together and work as one, like our coach always tells us every day and every practice," Kaneakua said. 

Toloumu, whose squad reeled off nine straight wins since a 2-4 start to the season, wasn't overly concerned with the one-point penalty prior to the start of the final frame. 

"We have gone through our highs and lows together but I think because of that they've learned how to work together through those highs and lows and when a player goes down or a player gets mad, I think they've really learned how to figure out how to capitalize on each other's strengths and so I think part of that was just them coming together," said Toloumu, who has eight seniors on her roster.

"The time between sets, I didn't take it over because they were doing their thing and I mean, they've been together for a long time, so it kind of was like, ‘You just gotta play your game and the rest will take care of itself,' " she said. 

Kapaa coach Kapule Kaona spoke highly of both Kaneakua and the Rams. 

"That guy deserves every accolade — he's just so smooth, has a high IQ — and that guy just can do anything with the volleyball and we knew that coming in, that no matter what we try to do against him he was going to find a way to find the floor and he's just an amazing volleyball player and all credit to him," Kaona said. 

Kaona, however, knew his team had to respect the Rams beyond just Kaneakua. 

"We knew coming into this match Radford was gonna be a tough matchup — I mean, they're very deep, they're very skilled players — we liked our chances coming into the night," Kaona said. 

The Warriors (13-2) were seeded second behind ILH-champion Le Jardin. Their road to Saturday's title game went through OIA runner-up Pearl City (in five sets Thursday) and a sweep of No. 3 seed and MIL champion Seabury Hall in Friday's semifinal round. 

"We kind of came in with a lot of momentum from our semifinal match. Coming in tonight the boys felt that we were ready, I felt that we were ready. We just kind of made some crucial errors down the stretch at the end of the match," Kaona said. 

Four players finished with double-digit kills for Kapaa, which hit .148 as a team. Filisi Hunt had 14 kills but as many errors and took 41 swings. Pope and Syren Burley put down 13 kills apiece and hit .345 and .423, respectively. Pope also registered eight digs. 

Emry Piturachsatit recorded 12 kills and 15 digs, setter Isaiah Noguchi racked up 50 assists with 18 digs and libero Kamalei Mundon posted a team-high 25 digs in the loss. 

Just as Toloumu expected, the Warriors gave her team all that it could handle. 

"We knew they were gonna be really tough. I mean, they had a lot of weapons — they have pins and they have middles — and I think we've faced teams with one or the other over the course of the season, but we knew they were pretty consistent and they were well connected," Toloumu said. :You can see that they've got a real good chemistry going and so we were trying to look at the areas that they tend to hit to so we could put our defense there or put our blocks there and then just try and look at their defense and see where the holes were on their defense so we could capitalize on them, if possible."

Kaona also pointed to the end of set 4 as a turning point in the match. 

"That's where we just gave away a run of points that I think just let Radford get the momentum in that match. Credit to Radford, they deserve every bit of this. They're such a skilled team but I'm proud of our boys and the way that they just fight to the end, not give up, represented their school, their island, their community very well — just proud of them," Kaona said. 

Kapaa was seeking its second state championship in program history and first since it captured the inaugural D2 title in 2005. 

The Warriors reached the D2 final three straight years from 2017 to 2019, but lost to an ILH opponent each time. 

Despite yet another runner-up finish, Kaona could appreciate the fact that two public schools were in the state championship match for a sport largely dominated by the private-school ILH. 

"Oh yeah, that's great. The fact that we're from an outer island, we knew that we were representing all of the outer islands in this final with all the Oahu teams, but having two public schools here I think is a great representation of boys volleyball growing and more boys playing year-round volleyball and club volleyball. I think that speaks a lot to the wealth of volleyball spreading out to all the schools, not just private-school dominated," Kaona said. 

Saturday night also marked the end of a wildly-successful week for Kapaa's athletic department. The school's softball team repeated as D2 state champions Friday before both the Warriors' boys volleyball and baseball teams finished second in their respective D2 state tournaments just hours apart on Saturday. 

"We were all hoping that we could bring a koa (trophy) home — we came up 1 of 3 — but I think it's just a testament to our administration, our principal Tommy John Cox and (athletic director) Greg Gonsalves and all the effort that they put into athletics. I think this just speaks to all of that and all of their support that they give to athletics," Kaona said.