The Buffanblu celebrate after a point against Iolani in an ILH Division I contest Tuesday night. CJ Caraang | SL

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The Buffanblu celebrate after a point against Iolani in an ILH Division I contest Tuesday night. CJ Caraang | SL

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Execution was the focus of this weeks practice for Punahou – and practice makes perfect.

The defending state champions successfully protected their undefeated record with a 25-15, 25-16 win over Iolani (5-2) in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I contest at Iolani's Lower Gymnasium Tuesday night.

The game was a rematch of the two teams' first match of the season, which the Buffanblu won in straight sets.

Led by Ryan Wilcox and Kanai Akana, Punahou's offensive firepower once again proved to be too much for the Raiders.

On top of the strong offensive play by the Buffanblu, the team put an emphasis on the other side of the net, stopping Iolani's offense in its tracks.

"We worked a lot on our read blocking this week," said Punahou coach Rick Tune. "The guys really took that to heart and did that a little bit better, executed at a much higher rate than we did against Mid-Pacific a couple days ago."

Despite losing the first set and facing an 11-5 deficit in the second, the Raiders never stopped fighting, going on a 7-1 scoring run to tie the contest at 12 apiece that forced a Punahou timeout.

Tune used the timeout to remind his team about their strategy.

"We just went away from the game plan," said Tune. "Just basically to slow down the momentum and also just to remind them what our game plan was, and when we went back to it, we were just fine."

Fine was an understatement, as the Buffanblu came out of the timeout to outscore Iolani 13-4 to close out the game.

Although the Buffanblu have yet to drop a set this season, the team doesn't like to forget about the things they can continue to work on.

"We have to get our back row attacking as part of the offense off of serve receives," said Tune. "I think we can get better blocking even still and we have to recognize when we have a team on the ropes and not give them an easy out serving into the net."

Punahou will look to implement those improvements when they face off against Maryknoll tomorrow at 7 p.m.

Iolani will have a chance to bounce back when they play Saint Louis on March 28 at 6:15 p.m.