Michael Fisher and Chad Barretta put down 25 kills each to lead top-seeded Hawaii Baptist to a four-set win over No. 4 seed Kohala in a semifinal match of the New City Nissan/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II Boys Volleyball State Championships Friday. The scores were 25-22, 26-28, 25-23 and 25-16.

A crowd of about 300 at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium saw the Interscholastic League of Honolulu champions improve to 16-3 while the Big Island Interscholastic Federation titlists fell to 16-1. HBA, which swept Kahuku in a quarterfinal Thursday, will meet third-seed Seabury Hall, the Maui Interscholastic League champ, for the state title at 5 p.m. Saturday at McKinley.

"It was a great game," said Fisher, a 6-foot-6 sophomore outside hitter. "This win was good, but we can't let it satisfy us. We'll have to come out with more passion and fire (Saturday) night against a very big and very good Seabury team."

The Cowboys held a 17-12 lead in the first set, but HBA closed it out with a 13-5 run. Game one ended with Barretta's fourth kill of the set.

Kohala coach Chai Wilson was proud of his team's effort in the loss.

"They played their hearts out and to me, I knew we would have to go through HBA, so even though it was� semifinal on paper, it felt like the title game and to be the best, you have to beat the best," Wilson said. "We usually start slow, so� focus today was to start big and start fast, which we did, but I think we got kind of comfortable with the lead and let it get away from us."

The Cowboys led 15-10 midway through game two, but the Eagles used a 10-4 run to take a 20-19 lead and force a Kohala timeout. The teams battled back-and-forth, but a pair of HBA errors gave the Cowboys a 27-26 lead before Johnny Hiraoka put away set point on a quick middle attack.

"Kohala came with a lot of energy and they employ a great system with some great passers," HBA coach Teoni Obrey said. "It was a battle all the way to the end."

The Eagles got six kills from Fisher and five from Barretta to take the third set, 25-23.

"Those two guys were big, as always for us, but I thought out libero (Kalei Hosaka) and our serving specialist (Reyn Sugihara) played well," Obrey said. "(Fisher) and (Barretta) always get the attention from other teams, but those other guys are kind of our unsung heroes."

Fisher added seven kills in game four to help HBA run away with it, 25-16.

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