Roosevelt's Kahaku King attempts a kill against McKinley from the right side in the second set of an OIA East contest. Greg Yamamoto | SL

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The Rough Riders defeated host McKinley in straight sets Monday night for a rebound 25-15, 25-21, Oahu Interscholastic Association Eastern Division victory.

Roosevelt improved to 7-2 in league play with the win and handed the Tigers (4-4) their fourth loss of the season.

"We knew this team was good," said senior outside hitter Kahaku King. "We saw their (last) game against Kahuku, so we just wanted to get a good game plan, get a good practice in for today's game."

The Rough Riders took advantage of their athleticism in the first set, effectively using King and a 5-1 offense to work the middle for easy kills.

"They're a very talented team, a very athletic team," said McKinley coach Chad Giesseman. "I didn't really get a chance to watch them play this pre-season but just watching them tonight, they are a very athletic team."

Along with its strong offensive play, Roosevelt was able to hold itself to just four errors in the first set, preventing the home crowd from shifting the momentum.

The Rough Riders switched it up in the second set however, opting to use a 6-2 for more offensive opportunities.

"Every now and then we like to mix it up with a 6-2," said Roosevelt coach Kaui Mendonca. "Get our middles more involved and stuff like that."

McKinley found more success against the new formation as the Rough Riders doubled their error count in the second stanza, including a stretch of five errors within seven serves that gave the Tigers an 18-17 lead and forced a Roosevelt timeout.

Coming out of the timeout Roosevelt took advantage of four straight McKinley errors and was able to seal the game off of a spike by King, who finished the match with eight kills to go along with nine digs.

"He's our go-to player when we're in trouble," said Mendonca of King. "He takes us out of bad positions."

"I always tell my teammates it's all about having fun, but, you have fun and you finish hard and that's all it is," said King after the win. "And I was just having fun, sometimes I got carried away but it was a good win."

It was a bounce back win for the Rough Riders who had a five game win streak snapped by Moanalua Friday and Mendonca gave his team credit for their improvements.

"The past couple of days we just haven't been serving well, we haven't been passing well," said Mendonca. "It looked a little bit better today."

On McKinley's side, Giesseman was happy with his team's play and recognizes what they need to work on moving forward.

"We played really well, enough to win, and for us it's always finishing," said Giesseman. "The last five points we just have to be more consistent the last five points, and that was the problem again tonight."

Joey Abe led the Tigers with seven kills and six digs in the loss.