Moanalua briefly celebrated its semifinal victory in its postgame huddle. Then coach Alan Cabanting told his girls to prepare themselves for the championship match.

The third-ranked Na Menehune (13-0) want to win the title after losing in last year’s OIA championship match to Mililani. Moanalua is focused on finishing the league season with a different outcome.

"We’re super pumped to get back into the championship," setter Bryanne Yasui said after Tuesday’s 25-18, 25-13, 25-16 semifinal victory over Nanakuli at McKinley High. "We want to win this year. We need to stay focused and not take any teams for granted."

Jojo Kruize had 18 kills and Lia Gaogao had 16 to help Moanalua advance to Friday’s championship match against Kapolei at McKinley. Yasui had 20 assists and Emree Sato added 18 assists in the semifinal win.

Natalia Kaopua had nine kills for the Golden Hawks (9-3), who play in Wednesday’s third-place match at Mililani. Ashley Van Gieson had 18 assists in the loss. Both teams have already qualified for the state tournament.

"We’re ready and we just got to take care of ourselves," said Gaogao.

Outside hitters Gaogao and Kruize were unstoppable. The two buried the bulk of their team’s kills and were threats in the front and also hitting out of the back.

"We practice the back-row attack a lot just in case there’s no outlet in the front row," Gaogao said. "We’re always ready."

Nanakuli’s block wasn’t able to cover Gaogao and Kruize. That and a breakdown in passing made it difficult for the Golden Hawks to generate any momentum during the match. A 6-0 run helped Moanalua pull away in Set 3. Four of those points came off Nanakuli errors.

"Our blocking wasn’t positioned well enough for us to give us a time to find where (our) defense would be," Nanakuli coach Junius Wong said. "A lot of that had to do with the frustration on our side of the net, the passing that led to bad setting that led to (more difficult) hits."

As the match wore on, Moanalua covered the tip shots from Nanakuli. Those benefited Nanakuli early in the match, as did good passing.

"We were passing better in the first and that usually leads to success … we just couldn’t keep it throughout the whole game," Wong said.

Gaogao and Kruize combined for 17 of their team’s 19 kills in Set 1.

Kapolei 3, Mililani 0

The Hurricanes advanced to the championship match with a 25-23, 25-22, 25-19 win over No. 8 Mililani in a semifinal match played at McKinley.

"We’ve never gone this far, so it’s a big accomplishment," said Kapolei’s Savannah Baldomero.

Kapolei (12-2) rallied late in all three sets to beat the Trojans (10-2).

Baldomero had back-to-back aces to start a 5-0 run that gave Kapolei a 23-17 lead in Set 3.

"We just wanted it and pushed ourselves to play hard," Baldomero said of her team’s late runs.

Kaile Tuisamatalele had a block and kill to seal the win.

"As a team we grew over the season," Baldomero said. "At the beginning we were a little rough and still working things out."