Sophomore Lepeka Kalulu-Sugai had 14 kills and senior Lizzy Blake added eight kills last night as Kahuku held off Moanalua, 25-23, 25-21, 28-26, to win its third straight O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red Conference girls volleyball championship.

The Red Raiders finished league play at 14-2 and earned the OIA's top seed and first-round bye in next week's Division I state tournament on Maui. Moanalua fell to 14-3 and will begin state tournament play in Wednesday's first round.

Last night's match at McKinley was the fourth meeting between the two teams this season, and Kahuku showed how much it learned from the familiarity.

The Red Raiders got off to quick starts in all three sets, leading 7-0 in Game 1, 6-1 in Game 2 and 4-1 in the third set.

"It feels good, we worked hard in practice on our technique and we studied Moanalua," said Blake, a three-year letterman at outside hitter. "We spent a lot of time breaking down their offense and their defense, and but they still kept us on our toes."

Na Menehune, who rallied from a 10-3 deficit in the fifth set Wednesday to rally past Mililani, showed the same type of resiliency in all three sets last night. They closed Game 1 to 11-10, 17-16 and 24-23 before Teuila Nautu finally ended it on a tip kill.

In Game 2, Moanalua stormed back from the 6-1 deficit to tie it at 8-8, and Kahuku did not get true separation until Blake had three kills to help the Red Raiders close out the set with a 5-2 run.

And in Game 3, Na Menehune fought off match point three times before a spike went into the net to end it.

"Moanalua is very scrappy, and I told our girls you can never count them out," said Kahuku first-year coach Kaniela Kalama. "They've come back to beat us before."

But last night, the Red Raiders kept Na Menehune at bay with precise attacks hard and soft. Many of their kills came on tips or offspeed shots.

"They did a really good job, they were always right there with the smart shot, even from the back row," Moanalua coach Tommy Lake said. "We needed to be a little more error-free, because Kahuku is athletic and they got better and better toward the end of the season."

Erin Perez led Na Menehune with 13 kills and Courtney Calicdan added 11 kills.

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