Baseball
Schools
Schedules
Standings
Stats
Players
Softball
Boys VB
JV boys VB
Girls Water Polo
Flag football
» Football
» Girls Volleyball
» JV Football
» JV/White Girls Vball
» Baseball
» Softball
» Boys Volleyball
» Girls Water Polo
» Flag Football
» JV Boys Volleyball
» Boys Basketball
» Girls Basketball
» Boys Soccer
» Girls Soccer
» JV Boys Basketball
» JV Girls Basketball
» JV Boys Soccer
» JV Girls Soccer
All-Hawaii
Power Rankings
Distinguished Athlete
Newcomer Award
Top Performers
Stories
About SL
Contact
Privacy
Advertise
Kalani Takase | ScoringLiveMay 1, 2025, 1:43am
Wed, Apr 30, 2025 @ Moanalua [ 7:00 pm ]
SALT LAKE — The Big Blue regime rules on.
Lionel Gannon put down 16 kills and Malu Wilcox dished out 40 assists to lead No. 2 Moanalua to a 25-19, 25-23, 25-23 sweep of Campbell in the OIA Division I boys volleyball championship match Wednesday night.
A spirited crowd of more than 600 fans at Na Menehune's gymnasium saw the home team fend off the upset-minded Sabers for the school's sixth consecutive league title and 14th overall.
It is Moanalua's 11th league crown under longtime coach Alan Cabanting, all of which have come in the last 12 years.
"Every one is different, every one's very special," Cabanting said.
"The legacy, the tradition and the culture that the other guys helped build before this has continued to stay on and the guys knew that and so they came here understanding that and making sure they take care of business tonight," he added.
Wilcox, a senior setter, has been a part of four OIA championship-winning teams in as many years.
"Being it's senior year it's just extra special because all four years, freshman through senior, I've been in the championship (match), I've won the championship (but) it's just something different, especially with these guys, the atmosphere is just so different," Wilcox said.
Gannon, a junior outside hitter/opposite, took 38 swings and hit .184 for the match. Middle blocker Luke Jones had nine swings against one error on 16 swings (.500 hitting percentage) , while pin hitters Ezekiel Afalava-Sablan and Loa McCutcheon had eight kills and five digs and seven kills and four digs, respectively. Taylor Chun added five kills out of the middle and hit .556.
"They're all weapons — Lionel, Zeke, Luke, Taylor, Loa, they're all weapons," Wilcox stated. "If they need to, they will put a ball away for me. I put full trust in those guys."
Moanalua flexed its muscles early in the match. Afalava-Sablan blasted back-to-back kills from the left side to spur a 7-1 run that gave her team an 11-5 lead in set 1.
Later in the set, Gannon found a seam with his left-side attack to stretch it to a 22-13 cushion. Campbell retaliated with a 5-1 run that was capped by a Julius Momoe-Mitchell kill to cut it to 23-18, but Gannon's cross-court shot landed just inside the back line and two points later, Wilcox used a back set to find McCutcheon, whose line shot from the opposite pin ended the opening set.
The Sabers came to life in set 2. They erased a 13-8 Moanalua lead to tie it at 18 on a solo block by Mozaic Mulipola.
A few points later, Campbell took its first lead of the second set after Kitiona Uli's solo stuff of a Moanalua attack. However, the Menes answered by scoring four straight points included a pair of blocks — a solo block by McCutcheon in the middle, followed by another roof on the right side that Jones and Gannon combined for.
Consecutive Moanalua errors — one at the service line and another on an attack at the net — allowed the Sabers to creep back to within a point at 24-23 — but Wilcox tossed a cross-court set in the direction of Afalava-Sablan, who put away set point with a thunderous slam.
Set 3 was another back-and-forth affair that saw 16 ties and five lead changes. Neither team led by more than two points in the final frame. The longest run by either squad saw Moanalua manage three straight points capped by a Jones kill to take an 11-9 advantage. Campbell inched ahead at 19-18 after a kill by Momoe-Mitchell, who went off the block and out with his swing.
The teams were knotted at 23 before Gannon's seam shot from the left side set-up championship point. The Sabers' final push fell short as they put an attack into the left antenna to close out the match.
Campbell improved its offensive efficiency with each set; it hit just .033 in set 1, but raised its hitting percentage to .194 and .273 in sets 2 and 3, respectively.
Cabanting said that slowing down Momoe-Mitchell, the Sabers' prolific left-side attacker, was the key to the Menes' defensive gameplan.
"Julius is going to be a big factor in their attack and so we knew we had to make sure that whenever he went up there would be two or three blockers on him at all times and we wanted to force everybody else, the other guys, to make plays and so because of that I think the boys were able to contain him a little bit more this time around and so yeah, they figured what they needed to," Cabanting described.
Wilcox said he and his teammates spent much of Tuesday's practice crafting a blocking scheme to keep Campbell from finding its rhythm.
"This whole week, ever since they won against Aiea, we've been watching film about who we should block, who is the target to this team because they're a really good team but we just had to get them out of system and allow us to set up a block and dig around if anything," Wilcox said.
Momoe-Mitchell, a 6-foot-1 senior, took 31 in all and finished with 15 kills and eight errors (.226 hitting percentage). Iverson Kuresa, a 5-foot-11 freshman outside hitter, tallied 13 kills against five errors on 27 swings (.296). Kitiona Uli had 27 assists, eight blocks and was in on four blocks in the loss.
Campbell coach Shane Duhon pointed to his team's 26 combined errors — 19 attack errors, seven service errors — as a key statistic toward the final result. At the same time, he praised Moaalua for its execution, particularly late in sets 2 and 3.
"They were very consistent in what they were doing. We were trying to serve them where it was out of system for them, (but) we made some errors and we needed to be more consistent on our end," Duhon said.
Libero Christian Cruz led Moanalua defensively with nine digs. Wilcox added six digs, Afalava-Sablan five and Gannon and McCutcheon chipped in four apiece.
"We've been working on defense, too — watching film, of course — and just knowing where to go if a block goes up and all that," Wilcox said.
Na Menehune (14-0), the lone undefeated team in the OIA, hit .394 in the third set and .291 for the match. They have dropped just three sets all season.
The West third-seeded Sabers (10-4) were playing their fourth match in seven days. They were seeking their second league crown and their first since 2008, which came in Division II.
Both teams will represent the OIA in next week's New City Nissan/HHSAA D1 State Championships.
Campbell will host a play-in match Monday, while Moanalua will have a bye into Thursday's quarterfinal round.
Aiea, Mililani and Kahuku finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively, to secure the league's remaining state tournament berths.
Every contribution, no matter the size, will help ScoringLive continue its mission to provide the best and most comprehensive coverage of high school sports in the state of Hawaii and beyond.
Please consider making a contribution today.
The Kauai Interscholastic Federation is expected to be included in the host rotations of the boys' and...
Athletics administrators from across the state are gathered at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, where the...
Twelve student-athletes from 10 different schools and representing three of the state's leagues were...
Senior setter Bailey Nakanelua was the engine that helped drive the Raiders back to the top of state...
Chargers' setter Marley Ngirmidol named Player of the Year in OIA Division II; Pearl City head coach...
Na Menehune outside hitter Lionel Gannon named Player of the Year and head coach Alan Cabanting named...
