For the first time since Roosevelt in 1979, the No. 1 seed in the top level of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Boys Volleyball State Championships is not from the ILH.
OIA champion Moanalua (14-0), which ran the table in the regular season and the playoffs without dropping a set, on Friday was awarded the top seed in Division I for this year’s tournament and will host the Hilo/Kaiser winner in its own gym in a quarterfinal game Thursday.
ILH champion Kamehameha, which beat Punahou in five sets to win the league title on Thursday, is the No. 2 seed. The Warriors (10-3), who lost to the Buffanblu in five sets on Tuesday and Wednesday, won their first ILH title since 2002.
Kamehameha hasn’t won a state title since future Olympian Micah Christenson led it to a sweep of Punahou in the 2011 final.
Kamehameha-Hawaii, which has won six of the past seven BIIF titles, is the No. 3 seed for the second straight year and Kamehameha-Maui, the MIL champion, is seeded fourth.
Nine-time defending state champion Punahou will play in a rare first-round match on Monday, hosting Leilehua at 5 p.m.
The Buffanblu are on Moanalua’s side of the bracket, setting up a potential semifinal against the No. 1 seed.
Kaiser’s match against the Vikings is at Hilo at 3:30 p.m. Roosevelt will travel to play at Lahainaluna and Mililani will host Kahuku to round out Monday’s first-round matchups.
In the eight-team Division II field, ILH champion University was awarded the top seed and will open against Pahoa at 5 p.m. in the first quarterfinal on Thursday at Radford. No. 2 seed Molokai will face Aiea in the first semifinal at Kalani. No. 3 seed Konawaena plays Saint Louis and No. 4 seed Radford will challenge Waimea in the other quarterfinal matches.
The championship games in Division I and Division II will be held a week from today at Cannon Activities Center on the campus of BYU-Hawaii in Laie.
