Kamehameha-Hawaii robbed the Hawaii Boys Volleyball Invitational of its featured matchup, then nearly stole the championship.

Evan Enriques led all scorers with 18 kills, but the Warriors lost to Westview (Calif.) 25-18, 23-25, 15-12 in the championship match of the gold bracket at ‘Iolani’s lower gym.

No 4 Kamehameha-Hawaii earned a spot in the final by blasting No. 3 Hawaii Baptist

25-21, 25-16 and denying the Eagles a shot at talented Westview. Moanalua took third place with a 25-21, 25-19 win over HBA, while No. 2 Kamehameha won the silver bracket and Pearl City finished strong to earn the bronze title.

Kamehameha-Hawaii blitzed the Wolverines in the first game, taking the lead at 8-7 and watching it balloon from there. They led by 12 at one point before Westview rallied with middle blocker Christian Ward on the floor. The Warriors outscored Westview 16-5 while Ward was on the bench waiting to rotate back into the front row.

“When he’s gone, we have a better shot, definitely,” Kamehameha-Hawaii coach Guy Enriques said. “He pretty much had his way with us. We tried to double-stack him, but there was not much we could do. He went over and around us.”

Ward led the Wolverines with 13 kills, and his team eventually adjusted with him out of the game. Kamehameha-Hawaii outscored Westview 32-21 with him out and 28-27 with him in the game.

“He had an awesome tournament, a phenomenal tournament,” Westview coach Steve McLaughlin said. “It took a while for us to actually play some good volleyball, and that was the last match. It was good to see.”

Bennett Bird, who is committed to BYU, took over the second game with nine kills to force the decider. Although they wanted to win, the Warriors used the lead to experiment and it cost them. Kamehameha-Hawaii switched to a 6-2 offense in the second game to get freshman setter Emmett Enriques some big-game experience, and he struggled, but the Warriors still came within two points of the sweep.

“As horribly as we played we were still in it.” Guy Enriques said. “Westview wasn’t playing well that game. If we had our regular lineup, it might have been a different ending, but that’s OK. It was good experience; we got people in there that don’t normally see the game.”

Guy Enriques switched back to his regular offense for the third game and the sides played even until a pair of errors and a kill by Westview’s Victor Chen gave the Wolverines a 12-9 lead. The Warriors trimmed it to 13-12, but Ward and Bird hit back-to-back heaters to end it.

Kamehameha-Hawaii might not take the trophy home, but it earned a bunch of respect. The Warriors went 5-1 in the tournament, adding wins over No. 5 ‘Iolani, No. 7 Moanalua, Saint Louis and Mid-Pacific to its sweep of HBA.

“They are awesome,” McLaughlin said. “Evan Enriques is phenomenal for being a sophomore, I wouldn’t have been embarrassed to lose to them after what they did to HBA and after that first game I was wondering if we could even play with them.”