MANOA — This one was for the Garden Island. 

Carlyn Kamoku-Rapozo registered a double-double with 31 kills and 14 digs to help Kapaa fend off Seabury Hall in five sets in the title match of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Division II Girls Volleyball State Championships at Bankoh Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center Saturday. 

The set scores were 25-22, 25-23, 21-25, 21-25 and 15-13. 

The fourth-seeded Warriors (15-0) escaped against the third-seeded Spartans (19-1), in a meeting of undefeated teams that were each seeking their first state crown. 

Kamoku-Rapozo, a senior outside hitter, took 78 total swings and committed 10 errors to finish with a .269 hitting percentage. She was also in on four blocks and had one of her team's 10 service aces. 

"It feels great and my team, we did it together as one — it wasn't just one player — it was all of us and we came together and we won and made history for our school, so it feels really great and I don't even know how to explain this feeling right now, but all I can say is it feels so amazing right now and we thank God for everything," said Kamoku-Rapozo, who was selected by the HHSAA and media as the tournament's most outstanding player. 

Second-year Kapaa coach Paea Tafea saw her team claim its redemption after a semifinals' exit and fourth-place finish in the state tournament a year ago. 

"We were here, we got a taste of it last year, took fourth place, but the good thing for us was that more than half of the team came back and they were hungry," Tafea said. 

Kamoku-Rapozo is one of seven seniors for the Warriors. Another one of them, outside hitter Kuuipo Hunt, also posted a double-double in her final prep match with 14 kills and a team-high 21 digs. Hunt also served up a half-dozen aces. Two other seniors — libero Mandy Gokan and setter Kanani Silva — contributed 16 and 11 digs, respectively; Silva also dished out 48 assists. 

"They fought. They fought and these girls are solid through and through. They're solid girls, solid team and I'm very proud of them," Tafea expressed. "Very proud of the girls and very proud of the coaches."

Kapaa took the first two sets, only to see Seabury Hall storm back to claim sets 3 and 4 to even the match. That's when the Warriors' senior leadership rose to the occasion. 

The Spartans used a 5-1 run in the middle of the fifth set that included three Dillon McLellan kills and was capped by a double-block by Destiny Keomaka-Wood and Delaney Tauaese to pull ahead, 11-10. 

Tafea called timeout at that point and her team responded by winning the next four points to set-up championship point. Out of the stoppage, Jennifer Guerin put down a kill in the middle to even the score at 11-all. Khloe Grove and Silva then teamed up for a block on the right side before back-to-back Seabury errors (a lift call, followed by an attack out of bounds) gave the Warriors a 14-11 cushion. 

Guerin and Grove are two more of Kapaa's departing seniors. 

"With our team being senior heavy, they understand that they have to pick up the rest of the team to kind of push them. They were here last year, they understand the experience, so they did their job," Tafea said. 

The Spartans staved off defeat a couple of times before Hunt closed out the match with a cross-court kill from the left side that just landed inside of the end line. 

In the immediate aftermath of the final point, Seabury Hall coach Lecca Roberts was quick to rise from the team bench and applaud the effort of her players on the court. 

"I couldn't be more proud of our guys. I think when you play a state championship match, you want it to look like this, so I feel like they left everything out there and honestly, two-point match, it was a way to battle," Roberts said. 

"It was an amazing match tonight. Super close match, just a couple deciding points, but we'll be back," she added. 

Milaniakai Padilla recorded a match-high 32 kills and hit .316 with just eight attack errors in 76 total swings. The sophomore also tallied a match-high 23 digs. 

McLellan finished with 20 kills, nine digs and two aces, Keomaka-Wood distributed 54 assists, six digs and was in on four blocks. Libero Tulsi Erlemann contributed 17 digs, Madison Kalawaia chipped in 11 and Clia Kafka had 10 digs, nine kills and three aces in the loss. 

Seabury Hall hit .231 as a team, while Kapaa hit .178. 

The Spartans were making their fourth appearance in the D2 state title match. They last appeared in the final in 2014, but lost to Konawaena in five sets. In the 2012 championship, they fell short in five sets to Saint Francis and in the 2007 iteration, they were swept by Hawaii Baptist. 

Seabury Hall was seeking to become the first team from the Maui Interscholastic League to win a state crown since Molokai won the D2 tournament in 2010. 

Not only is it the Warriors' first state title, it is the first for any school from Kauai — a distinction not lost upon Tafea, a 2017 Kapaa graduate. 

"If you ask the girls what their ‘why' is — because we play for a reason, we're not just playing for this (trophy) — their why is Kauai; ‘Kauai as why,' if you haven't heard it," Tafea said. 

She went on, "They play for more than Kapaa — they play for their family and the other schools *Kauai High, Waimea and Island School). We hate the other schools when we're playing them, but when we come over here (to states), we represent for the island."

The Warriors are the first team from the Kauai Interscholastic Federation to reach the D2 state final since Waimea lost to Damien in straight sets in 2019. 

"It means a lot," Kamoku-Rapozo affirmed. 

"Our ‘why' is Kauai and we played for them tonight and they were a big part of the reason why we could finish and so big shoutout to our island and we did this for you guys and hope we made you guys really proud," she said. 

It was the first time since 2019 that the D2 title match did not feature two teams from the Interscholastic League of Honolulu. Kapaa is just the third non-Oahu school to win it all in D2 since its inception in 2005.