SALT LAKE — In a clash of unbeaten titans, Na Menehune of Moanalua took down the Mililani Trojans in straight sets, 25-11, 25-22, 25-21, to defend their title and win the program’s 12th overall league championship.

Led by a trio of University of Hawai’i men’s volleyball commits, Na Menehune blitzed the Trojans right out of the gate, taking an early 8-4 advantage in the opening set.

Mililani fought back, keeping Moanalua from blowing the doors open in the first frame to make it 14-11, midway through.

With Rainbow Warrior head coach Charlie Wade in the house, his three commits decided to put on a show for their future coach as Moanalua strung together 11 straight points to close out a dominant first set, 25-11. 

Looking for an answer, Mililani opened the second set with a similar intensity as the first with the teams trading blows en route to a 10-6 Trojans lead that forced a Moanalua timeout. 

Mililani continued to hold ahead of Moanalua late into the set, leading 17-14 over Na Menehune as the three-time defending OIA DI champion looked frazzled by the Trojans.

“The big thing is that we go back to what we do best,” Moanalua head coach Alan Cabanting recalled telling his team. “We won a really lopsided set one and we wanted to do the same things, a little bit bigger… We started to hit the ball down instead of hitting over blockers, we started to chase balls that we didn’t need to because our defense in the back row was pretty good anyway.”

Behind the steady hand of Kai Rodriguez, one of the UH commits Na Menehune deploys in their lineup, Moanalua charged back to knot the second set at 18 before forcing a Mililani timeout by taking a 23-21 lead late into the set.

Unfortunately for the Trojans, the momentum shift was too much to overcome. Moanalua took the night’s second set, 25-22, to take a commanding two sets-to-none lead over their West counterparts. 

The 22 points registered in the night’s second set by Mililani were the most given up to another OIA program in a single set this season by Moanalua. 

With their backs against the wall, Mililani opened the third set with a fervor to take an early three-point advantage over Moanalua, 10-7. The Trojans maintained the lead into the media timeout, 13-10, before Na Menehune turned on the jets once again to take a 15-14 lead and forcing a Mililani timeout.

Once Moanalua had grabbed the momentum inside of a raucous Jim Alegre Gymnasium, Na Menehune refused to let go.

The dynasty draped in blue, winners of the past three OIA DI title games, closed out Mililani in the final set, 25-21, for their 12th overall OIA boys’ volleyball title and fourth consecutive championship to complete an undefeated season as the team rolls into the state playoffs. 

Manase Fetulimoeata registered double-digit kills for Mililani, leading the way for the Trojans with 10 to go along with 10 digs. Mililani recorded three aces on the evening against Na Menehune.

UH commit Kai Rodriguez was dominant all night for Moanalua, registering a match-high 14 kills and seven service aces as he helped will Na Menehune to another OIA crown. Fellow UH commit Justin “JT” Todd had 13 kills on the night and a pair of aces, while Jayden Bush rounded things out with six kills for Moanalua.

“[Since] we were trying to do too much, some funky things happened,” Cabanting said postgame. “That what good teams do. [Mililani head coach Gabby Maunupau] did a really good job really scouting us and forcing us to make more difficult plays and the boys really well to make those difficult plays happen.” 

SALT LAKE — The Radford Rams (9-3) took down Aiea Na Ali`i (8-5) in their home gym to win the OIA Division II boys’ volleyball championship match on Wednesday night.

The Rams win marks the first time that Radford has won the OIA Division II title in boys’ volleyball and completed a long journey that saw them lose their first three matches of the season. 

“We definitely started out with the three strongest teams in the West” Radford head coach Melanie Toloumu said of the early-season slate. “My message to the kids after those three losses was ‘we can’t let them go in vain, we need to learn from it.’ They picked up, they kept working, they’re a great group of kids that want to learn and they love the game.” 

After a back-and-forth start to the opening set of the night, the Rams used a 9-3 run to take a commanding 13-6 lead into the media timeout. 

Radford continued increasing their lead, pushing the advantage to 10 points, 23-13, as Aiea used their final timeout to try and re-group. 

The Rams would have none of it, winning the evening’s opening set, 25-14.

Na Ali`i opened the second set of the night a bit better, holding an early 7-6 advantage over the Rams as the two teams traded short runs. 

Radford would take control of the set, winning six of the next nine points to rush ahead of Aiea, 13-10.

While Aiea would keep within striking distance, Radford closed the set out with a rush and took a commanding two sets-to-none advantage over their counterparts with a 25-20 win. Along with the set advantage, the hometown crowd began to get even louder. 

Radford wasted no time getting ahead early in the third set of the evening, racing out to an 8-3 lead and extending it to eight, 13-5, by the media timeout. 

With the program’s first league title within their grasp, Radford kept Aiea at arms’ length as Na Ali`i tried to chip into the Rams’ lead. 

Aiea cut the deficit down to six, but ultimately could not get closer as Radford took the final set, 25-18.

Radford won in straight sets to clinch their first OIA league championship in program history. The sets went 25-14, 25-20, 25-18 in favor of the Rams.

Aiea was led by Marcus Tauanuu’s seven kills and seven digs. Tauanuu also delivered Aiea’s lone service ace on the night.

Radford’s Keahi Kaneakua was the only player in the match to tally double-digit kills on either side, finishing an excellent all-around night with 11 kills, 13 assists, five digs and a team-leading three service aces.

“I’m excited for the players,” Radford’s Toloumu smiled postgame. “I want to go see them because I want to just hug them and say congratulations because I’m very proud of them. I’m tired but I feel like we’ve got more to go.”