When an upstart meets a traditional power on its home court, one of a couple different things can happen.

The underdog can hang around, hang around, and muster all its moxie for the upset. Or, as was the case last night at Punahou’s Hemmeter Fieldhouse, Goliath can run David right out of the building. The second-ranked Buffanblu streamrolled No. 6 University High 25-6, 25-13 in under an hour.

Punahou (2-0 Interscholastic League of Honolulu) dropped the first two points of the match, then rattled off 15 straight on the serving of senior tri-captain Shannan McCready. The opposite hitter had six of the Buffanblu’s 11 aces for the match.

Her pinpoint daggers set the tone as the Division II Junior Rainbows were sent scrambling and could rarely create solid swings. After absorbing the 15-0 run, their chances were bleak. A kill by Taylor Dayton capped a 10-4 spurt to close the first frame.

"Yeah, how about that. Was that incredible?" Punahou coach Peter Balding said. "(McCready’s) location was really good. We kept giving her different locations … and she did a great job of that."

UHS (2-1) started off the second set with some control, pulling to 5-5. Then Punahou went on an 8-1 run — featuring two more McCready aces — and was able to play its backups for the rest of the match.

Balding wasn’t expecting the one-sided result. University got major additions in the offseason in four Word of Life transfers. But last night, anyway, the newcomers couldn’t get anything going; UHS was held to one kill in the first set.

"I think that we got lucky here," Balding said. "You could tell (UHS was) a little nervous. When we got a couple of points, they got a little jittery and they couldn’t get back in their rhythm. That team is a D-I team. I know they’re in the D-II league, but that’s a D-I team. Those kids … they play club with a lot of my girls. So they’re top-level kids."

On the occasions that UHS buckled down and Punahou was forced to execute its passing game, senior setter Alexandra Santi delivered a solid all-around attack. Dayton, a sophomore hitter, posted a match-best seven kills, while freshman Remo-Louise Gaogao added six and middle Brigitte-Gregoria Russo four.

McCready’s game 1 run of serving was impressive, but she quickly pointed out she had plenty of help from a front line eager to punish UHS overpasses, and a back row ready to lay out and pick up attacks that got past the block.

"We work on serving a lot in practices and I guess that’s really becoming a strength of ours now," McCready said. "And I wouldn’t have even been able to go back and serve that many points, if, like all the back rows, they were digging balls, and our front row was putting everything away when they got a chance. Team effort."

UHS suffered its first loss in ILH play after wins over Hanalani and La Pietra last week.

To UHS coach Walter Quitan, Punahou offered his team its toughest test by far this season.

On the positive side for the Junior Rainbows, it was the only time the schools will meet.

"Yeah, definitely (we learned some we can use)," Quitan said. "The jump float and the jump serve really took us out of our rhythm. We’ve seen it so far; I don’t know if it was because of nerves or we kind of got frozen, and once we fell behind I think it just kind of snowballed. It’s kind of the first real pressure game we’ve played in with a new team, and we just didn’t step up and handle it well."