Brian Bautista | SL

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Combo breaker.

Moanalua posted a stunning five set winner over defending champion Punahou to claim the New City Nissan/HHSAA Division I Boys Volleyball State Championships, the first ever title in the sport for Na Menehune and the first for a non-ILH program since 1979.

The set scores were 14-25, 25-18, 18-25, 25-19 and 25-13.

Lionel Gannon had 18 kills and Jarryn McCutcheon added 17 more to pace Na Menehune, who were actually outhit .302 to .310 percentage-wise and out-pointed in every statistical category, yet somehow found a way.

"I think this was a group where team was definitely a big factor and they knew that everybody had to contribute," said Moanalua head coach Alan Cabanting.

Those contributions were all over the place. Beyond the aforementioned 35 combined kills by Gannon and McCutcheon, Puka Tauane had nine kills and two blocks, Taylor Chung chipped in seven more kills, Jerome Obrero added five kills and three blocks and Jett Felisi had a kill and six total blocks.

Setters Colby Kawaa (30 assists, two aces) and Christian Cruz (20 assists) went set-for-set with Nalu Akana, who had a game-high 48 to go along with four kills, two blocks and an ace.

In the fifth and deciding set, Moanalua jumped out to an 5-1 advantage, forcing a Punahou time out. From there Na Menehune kept the margin hovering at two for much of the set, but actually had set point at 14-11 on Gannon's 18th kill.

Punahou kept its hopes for a 41st title alive as a Tanoa Scanlan kill trimmed the lead to 14-12, forcing a timeout. Coming out of that brief pause, the lead evaporated to just one on a hitting error, and the Buffanblu hopeful could sense deuce upcoming.

A miraculous diving save by libero Darric Abe on a second ball kept the point alive after the Punahou block sent back an attack, and the counteratack on the ensuing over was handled easily by the Na Menehune backrow, allowing Colby Kaawa to put up a textbook set for McCutcheon to put a cap on the historic night for the kids from Salt Lake Boulevard.

"No ball was going to drop for me," said Abe, who had a match-high 14 digs. "I'm going to go for everything no matter what."

If set one was any indication, Punahou's 25-14 runaway win was the beginning of the end of the run for Moanalua, but Gannon and company had other plans.

"Everyone made an impact today. I know people counted us out after that first set, but we've been used to it," said Gannon. "We've been rallying from being down all year and we knew we just to make a little less errors and just play our game."

And that they did, taking set two rather handily, 25-18, in a set where they led by as many as eight.

The Buffanblu recovered in set three, taking a 25-18 win of their own, setting up a must-win for Na Menehune in set four.

A back and forth fourth saw Moanalua pull ever so slightly ahead heading down the stretch, with a Kawaa ace on a mishandled ball in the backcourt forcing a timeout.

From there, momemtum was clearly on the side of the OIA champs, and they powered through the final three points, with kills by McCutcheon and Obrero bookending an attack error by Punahou, setting up the winner-take-all fifth.

Punahou's Cameron Porter had a match-leading 25 kills and added four blocks, an ace and an assist in his final game at the prep level. Scanlan had a double-double with 15 kills and 13 digs and added five blocks in the loss.

The last team not part of the ILH to win a title in boys volleyball was Roosevelt who won the crown back in 1979. Moanalua won the title in its second championship appearance after losing to Punahou in straight sets in 2022.

"It's just unbelievable. Being the first in our program ever to get a state title I mean, it's just surreal," said Abe.