Larry Tuileta spiked six kills and hustled for seven digs as No. 1 Punahou swept No. 5 ‘Iolani 25-12, 25-15 on Tuesday night.

A crowd of about 200 at Hemmeter Fieldhouse saw Punahou win its second match in as many nights. The Buffanblu are now 5-0 in Interscholastic League of Honolulu competition, squarely in first place as the regular season nears its midway point. ‘Iolani slipped to 3-3.

Punahou used its height and game plan to shadow ‘Iolani’s big gun, 6-foot-7 Gabriel Vega, from start to finish. Vega had just three kills, all in the first set, and finished with a hitting percentage of -.048. As usual, Punahou coach Rick Tune relied on his deep, athletic and tall bench to keep fresh legs on the floor.

"‘Iolani uses a different kind of system, a little bit funky, so you have to know what their tendencies are and what type of patterns they tend to run," Tune said. "Gabo is 6-7. He’s a great player, so you have to pay attention to him. We take pride in our defense, so that’s been a big focus for us in the past week. Whatever other teams try to do, we want to take them out of that."

Freshman Micah Ma‘a tallied 17 assists with two kills on dumps. Sean Gruebner and Nicholas Andrews added four kills apiece, and Griffin Bolan added three.

"That’s the kind of effort we strive for. Aside from the first probably 10 points of the second set, we did that for the most part tonight," Tune said. "That’s about 85 percent of what we can play at. A lot of guys played really solid matches. We had a great group effort and we should feel good about that."

Punahou had just one hitting error in the opening set and finished with a .306 hitting percentage.

Junior libero Colin Peros had another efficient night with five digs and three of his team’s seven aces. Punahou had just six service errors.

"Sometimes my spin serve isn’t going as well, so my coaches give me an area and I float it," said Peros, who had three aces on Monday in a win over Maryknoll. "We’re still trying to get better and trying our best to improve team chemistry."

‘Iolani finished with no aces and seven service errors, but was almost on par with the Buffanblu after Duke Pauli’s kill brought the Raiders within 10-8 in the first set. From there, however, Punahou went on an 8-1 run to pull away.

Bolan, a water polo standout who will play the sport at Stanford, had all three of his kills in the first game.

The visitors jumped to a 3-0 lead in the second set, and still had a lead at 9-8. Punahou went up 13-11 on a block by Kupono Fey and a kill by Gruebner, but consecutive hitting errors gave the Raiders an opportunity to even the score.

Instead, the Buffanblu went on a 6-0 run. Gruebner had a block and a kill, and Peros added another ace. ‘Iolani got no closer than six the rest of the way.

Punahou will have one week before its next match, a showdown with No. 2 Kamehameha at Hemmeter.

"It’ll get us some rest time, which the boys need," Tune said, adding that it’s spring break for the school.

"We’ll come back and start prepping for Kamehameha. It’s been a real busy two weeks. The coaches need a break, the players need a break. We’ll come back reenergized and all the better for it."