Punahou outslugs Hawaii Baptist

Hawaii Baptist stepped up a weight class and Punahou knocked it back down.

Larry Tuileta had 23 kills and No. 3 Punahou beat No. 4 Hawaii Baptist 25-8, 23-25, 15-9 to capture the Hawaii Boys Volleyball Invitational at ‘Iolani on Saturday.

The matchup pitted Hawaii’s reigning state champs, with Punahou representing Division I and Hawaii Baptist carrying the flag for Division II. Still, a win against the Eagles meant more than if the Buffanblu had just beat up its little brother.

"This means a lot to our team," Tuileta said. "We grew a lot throughout this tournament and it showed how we can play against other good teams. We were just trying to get better and make other teams better."

Punahou has won three of the past four state titles in Division I and Hawaii Baptist was crowned champ of the smaller class in four of the past five years.

The Buffanblu ran a clinic in the first set, spreading the kills around to six different players and committing only a single error. More important, they showed off a stellar defense that held Hawaii Baptist’s Michael Fisher to a single kill. Fisher was blocked twice for points and had one error.

"Mike was there. I don’t know if some of our younger, less experienced players were there," Hawaii Baptist coach Teoni Obrey said. "Once we were able to see what they had, I think we were able to adjust to the speed of the hits and were able to be more successful."

Fisher came alive in the second set as his teammates got used to Punahou’s speed from all five positions and pounded down 13 kills without an error. With the set tied at 23-all, Fisher knocked one home to get the advantage and the Eagles won it when Tuileta slammed an attempt long and wide. It was only Tuileta’s second error of the set to go with 12 kills. He and Fisher traded bombs throughout the set, but Punahou got five kills from Kupono Fey and two from Micah Ma‘a. In addition to Fisher, Hawaii Baptist got only one kill each from three different players.

"The stars kind of lined up in that first set for us," Punahou coach Rick Tune said. "Mike’s a great player and I think you saw in the second and third sets he was their offense and carried them, but we pride ourselves on defense too, and there is going to be periods where we get the best of him and others when he gets the best of us."

Tuileta outscored Fisher 6-4 in the deciding third set, but Punahou’s Noah Hayashida made just as much of a difference for them. Hayashida had a kill from the middle to make it 5-3 and an ace after an error by Fisher to run it to 7-3. The Buffanblu rode Tuileta the rest of the way, getting four kills from him before Fisher was called for a net violation to give Punahou the winning point.

"The boys did good," Tuileta said. "We were really trying to focus on our serve-and-pass game throughout this tournament and we kind of peaked for the final match, so that’s good. It was a lot of fun out there."

Punahou is 4-1 in the ILH and gets back to work on Tuesday when it hosts Maryknoll. Hawaii Baptist visits Hawaiian Mission the same day. For as easily as it won this tournament, Punahou still has to find a way to overcome Kamehameha, to which it lost in a regular-season game. A tournament championship is nice, but it won’t mean much if it doesn’t make the Buffanblu better.

"It depends on how we respond to it," Tune said. "If we use it as a steppingstone to get better, and make the necessary adjustments we need to make to get better, and there are a lot of them, then it is a positive. I think this team will respond in the right way."

It is Punahou’s first tournament title since 2011. Hawaii Baptist had never reached the final before.

Punahou reached the final with a 25-17, 25-12 win over host ‘Iolani and Hawaii Baptist got there with a 25-20, 25-20 sweep of Maryknoll. Kalaheo won the silver bracket with a 25-13, 25-27, 15-12 win over Saint Louis, the only win for an OIA school against another league on the final day. Mid-Pacific took the bronze bracket 25-19, 21-25, 15-9.