Wes Nakama
March 20, 2012, 10:44pm
Punahou sweeps past 'Iolani, 25-12, 25-15
Punahou's Larry Tuileta attempts to get a kill past the 'Iolani block. Eric Alcantara | Special to SLPunahou improved to 5-0 in the ILH, a half-game ahead of second-place Kamehameha (5-1). The Raiders fell to 3-3.
The Buffanblu had tied for third place out of 16 teams in the Gold (top) Division at the prestigious Best of the West Tournament in Poway, Calif., two weekends ago.
Their only loss was a narrow 25-23, 25-21 defeat to tournament champion and perennial national power Loyola (Los Angeles).
"That team has five (NCAA) Division I recruits, and they knew how to play when it was 20-20," Punahou coach Rick Tune said. "We still need to learn how to play when it's 20-20."
To the Buffanblu's credit, it got nowhere near that situation tonight as they pulled away midway through each set.
In Game 1, Sean Gruebner landed a kill from the back row to start a 7-1 run that made it 17-9, and in the second set Tuileta's back row kill helped spark a 12-2 surge that ended the match.
"We talked about keeping a high level of intensity on our side of the net the whole match, no matter what was happening on the other side of the net," Tune said.
'Iolani senior Gabo Vega, a 6 foot 7 outside hitter who signed a national letter of intent with Stanford, was held to four kills.
"We served the ball pretty good, and when those guys struggled with their passing we were able to form our block, get some high hands up there and slow him down," Tune said.
Gruebner contributed four kills, two blocks and an ace, and Kupono Fey added two kills and two aces.
Micah Goshi had three kills and two blocks and Duke Pauli also had three kills for 'Iolani.