Brody Badham pounded 10 kills while Evan Porter, Afatia Thompson and Nalu Akana tallied eight each as Punahou swept Kamehameha 25-20, 25-16, 25-18 to clinch the ILH boys volleyball regular-season title on Wednesday night.
A boisterous crowd at Hemmeter Fieldhouse saw the Buffanblu improve to 9-0 in league play with one regular-season game remaining. As usual, it was a balanced attack with Elijah Smith and Akana distributing the ball as a gritty Kamehameha defense tried all it could to keep up.
“I feel great for these seniors, these guys who have worked hard all year,” Buffanblu coach Rick Tune said. “It’s uncommon. This is one of the most cohesive teams I’ve had. Their skills complement each other really well and they don’t care about who’s delivering when. If you take this away we’ll do that. If you take away that, we’ll do this.”
Badham added three aces and 1.5 blocks as his senior season continues to flourish. In all, nine Buffanblu celebrated senior night with family and fans after the match. There was far more interest in giving lei and hugs than chatting about another state-tourney berth for the 10-time defending state champions.
“I enjoyed the fact that we were able to come together as a team and sweep our biggest rivals in the ILH. The whole team played awesome. It really shows how hard we work at practice,” Badham said. “Being able to play. Last year was my first year on the team. I didn’t play much, had lots of good guys ahead of me. I got the opportunity to play this season. All these guys are my friends and it’s been really fun to play with them.”
Middle Adam Haidar chipped in four blocks.
“Today was really fun. It was a good representation of how good we can play when we play together. I’m looking forward to the next time we play Kamehameha,” Haidar said. “I know they’re going to come out firing. We’re going to go back the practice and work even harder.”
Matt Chun had a team-high 10 digs. His sister, Kristen, blessed him with a homemade haku lei.
“I enjoyed playing with my boys for one of the last times. We’ve played together since ’14s year (2014),” he said.
Kamehameha (6-3) is in a battle for second place with ‘Iolani (7-2). The teams play at ‘Iolani on Friday in their regular-season finale.
