Thursday, November 1, 2001

DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Kalani's Liane Soto scored match point against
Pearl City as the Falcons advanced to the OIA finals.

Moanalua upsets
Kalaheo in OIA semis

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By Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.com

The Oahu Interscholastic Association boys volleyball championship won't be awarded until tomorrow night. But the Moanalua Menehunes partied like they had already won the title two days early following their semifinal victory over Kalaheo last night.

Moanalua rallied past the defending OIA champion Mustangs 7-15, 15-12, 15-13 at Kalani High School's gym. The Menehunes advance to tomorrow's championship match at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Moanalua will face Pearl City in the title match. The Chargers defeated Farrington 15-4, 15-8 in the other semifinal at Waianae.

The boys championship match is set for 5:30 p.m. and will be followed by the girls title match at 7.

"It's been a long time since we've come this far," Moanalua coach Doug Hee said. "That's why I think they celebrated a little more than I hoped. But I'm happy for that. They achieved what they've been working for. They finally started to believe in themselves."

After dropping the first game, Moanalua played Kalaheo even in Game 2 before stringing four points together to take a 14-8 lead. Kalaheo cut the lead to 14-12, but fell short when Justin Pedrina's spike went into the net to give the Menehunes the game. The Menehunes recovered to take a 13-12 lead, but Kalaheo tied it on a kill by Charles Elliott.

A lift on Elliott on the next serve gave Moanalua match point at 14-13. Pedrina then hit a spike wide of the court, sparking a wild celebration on the Moanalua side of the net.

"Nobody expected us to come this far," Hee said.

The Kalani girls team also defied preseason expectations by advancing to the OIA championship with a 15-1, 15-9 win over Pearl City.

The Falcons will take on Kahuku in tomorrow's championship match. The Red Raiders beat Waianae 15-5, 15-4 last night.

Kalani sophomore Marisa Okamoto served the first eight points of the match to give the Falcons a commanding lead over the Chargers.

"We wanted to serve tough at the beginning," Kalani coach Tehani Miyashiro said. "After we got a big lead, we said we're no longer serving tough, we're keeping the ball and let them make the mistakes."

Tomorrow's third-place girls match between Pearl City and Waianae will start at 2:30 p.m. The boys match between Kalaheo and Farrington begins at 4 p.m.

Waianae will face Moanalua in the girls junior varsity championship at 1 p.m.

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