There was disbelief, then acceptance.

After 19 seasons, Kamehameha will not be going to the girls volleyball state championships. Punahou made sure of that with a 25-15, 25-16, 25-18 sweep of the Warriors on Thursday night at Hemmeter Fieldhouse. Outside hitter Haumea Marumoto had 13 kills (.333) and opposite Tanea Loa tallied 10 kills (.589) as Punahou maximized its depth in a peak-performance night.

“I’m just grateful and excited. We’re in states,” Punahou coach Tita Ahuna said. “This is the ILH. We have such excellent teams, excellent coaches. It’s just tough, the top three teams are in one league. It’s a rocky road. It’s not a straight path to victory. But the bumps in the road make you stronger. Makes you more resilient. You can handle adversity better. I was very amazed at how strong we were and I hope we can continue that throughout the rest of our season.”

It was a win-or-go-home match for Kamehameha in the ILH double-elimination tournament. Punahou had already beaten Kamehameha last week in a tiebreaker match for second place in the regular season.

Defending state champion Kamehameha closed its season 26-11 overall. During its dynastic run, coach Chris Blake led the Warriors to 11 state crowns.

“Hats off to Punahou. All of the effort and all of the things that they did, they played really hard. They executed really well, put us into a lot of bad spots. We didn’t necessarily have enough to compete tonight,” Blake said. “It all goes into their coaching staff and all the things they did. They have a lot of great players and did a lot of great things, but I’m definitely proud of how our girls were able to fight through a lot of adversity throughout the course of the season. Unfortunately, we came up short. Hats off to Punahou and ‘Iolani for representing the ILH at states this year.”

Punahou, which also has one loss in the tourney, sealed second place and the state berth that comes with it. The Buffanblu (23-9 overall) will visit top seed ‘Iolani on Saturday at 2 p.m. ‘Iolani can capture the ILH championship with a win.

Punahou needs three wins over regular-season champ ‘Iolani to earn the league title — two to claim the double-elimination tourney and one more for the overall championship.

Punahou made key adjustments as Kamehameha double-teamed middle Grace Fiaseu. The senior had a superb effort with three kills, three blocks and four aces, while setters Rella Binney (22 assists, three kills, one ace) and Cali-Jo Shigemasa (17 assists, one ace) fed the ball consistently to Marumoto and Loa.

Junior Lulu Uluave also had 10 kills to go with an ace and a block. Fiaseu had three blocks to help Punahou put Game 1 away, then stymied Kamehameha with four aces early in the second set.

Adrianna Arquette led Kamehameha with 10 kills. Charlize Ching tallied 12 assists and two kills, and Marley Roe had 11 assists and four kills.

Punahou outblocked Kamehameha 8-1.

“It definitely feels good to sweep them and take care of business and go to states,” Marumoto said. “That’s what we wanted out of this for sure. Last time we played them, we were in a little bit of a slump, but we’ve improved our game. Everyone did their job, and when we made mistakes, we took care of it.”

When it wasn’t Marumoto from the left, it was Loa with thunderous blasts on the other side.

“It’s good to finally be where we are today. We worked really hard for what we have,” Loa said. “Working together is really key for us.”

The Buffanblu serve kept Kamehameha’s back row off balance, answering an early two-point deficit with an 18-8 run to close the opening set. Kamehameha rallied to within 17-14, but Fiaseu’s roofing work accounted for three of Punahou’s final four points.

Using a powerful, flat-footed serve, Fiaseu then dropped four aces to spark Punahou to a 7-0 lead in the second game. Blake burned his second timeout with the Warriors down 10-2, but there was nothing stopping the Buffanblu’s momentum. Punahou led 19-4 before Kamehameha chipped into the margin.

The home team controlled the third set, opening the lead to 16-9 on a right-side kill by Loa. The lead built up to 11 points en route to the sweep.