Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Greg Yamamoto | SL

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Punahou started off the quest for state title 41 the same way it began its 40th a season ago, notching its 19 straight win dating back to Mar 3, 2025 with a three-set win over Mid-Pacific in both teams' ILH Division I openers.

The set scores were 25-19, 25-17 and 25-14.

Tanoa Scanlan had a match-leading 14 kills for the Buffanblu, who also got at least four kills from five other players in a balanced effort.

"That's the end goal, we want to end up with a win at the end of the season, but it's just getting better as a team day by day," said Scanlan when asked about the prospects of back-to-back titles.

A close opening set saw both teams acclimate to the start of a new campaign, evidenced by at least seven service errors between the two teams in the opening set alone. The Owls hung around for much of first, closing to within three late in the set before the Buffanblu went on a late run to win it, 25-19.

Set number two saw Punahou make a slight tweak offensively, as Nalu Akana was fed more decidedly as a hitter in a handful of rotations, and that move seemed to have a positive impact, as the senior finsihed with seven kills, six of those coming in sets two and three. Two kills sparked a 6-2 advantage that won set thwo and another pair was central in a 9-1 spurt that helped the Buffanblu close out the match.

"Nalu didn't get much swings in the first set but once he gets going, it gets us in a rhythm as a team," said Scanlan.

Another facet was tough serving, which didn't translate to a ton of points directly, as the Buffanblu had just three aces in the match, but it certainly paid dividends in keeping the Owls from executing how they wanted to offensively.

"That's something that Coach Rick preaches is a lot is getting teams out of system, like when they moved 20 (Julian Romine) to middle, we knew that if they were out of system, he wasn't going to be a factor."

Romine finished with five kills, all in the first two sets.

A quiet night for Cameron Porter was still good enough for second on the team in kills with eight, but the reigning All-Hawaii Player of the Year did laser a game-ending ace to put a cap on the match.

"The scouting report's going to say number 8's the best player on the court, so load up on him and when he has that (kind of) impact, it opens up opportunities for our other guys," remarked Scanlan.