Huntington Beach High boys volleyball team may have left Kekuhaupi‘o Gym with the koa bowl after successfully defending its Kamehameha Cup title Saturday.

But the true Kamehameha Cup was played an hour earlier when the host Warriors of Kapalama rallied past the Warriors from Hawaii island 25-21, 20-25, 27-26 in the loser’s bracket final. The victory gave the hosts the bragging rights between the two campuses and sent Kamehameha to the championship match with Huntington Beach (Calif.), the tournament’s lone undefeated team.

The loss was just part of another long day for the Hawaii island team, which took its third-place finish to Punahou to play in the Clash of the Titans finale against Mira Costa (Calif.).

Mira Costa won 27-29, 25-19, 25-18, 25-18. Punahou swept Santa Barbara 25-19, 25-17, 25-20 in the other match at Punahou.

The rematch of last year’s Kamehameha Cup final saw the same result, with the Oilers downing the Warriors 25-19, 25-13. Huntington Beach got outstanding performances from their senior tri-captains, all of whom are headed to Long Beach State: setter Matt Butler, middle Andrew Tenbrink and opposite Zach Gates, the latter the son of former Kamehameha athlete Gordon.

"We talked about trying to stay in the winner’s bracket, staying rested," Huntington Beach coach Craig Pazanti said. "It is tough to come out of the loser’s bracket."

It showed in the finale of the double-elimination tournament. The Oilers, who beat the host Warriors 2-1 in the 10:30 a.m. semifinal, sat back as the two Kamehameha squads battled it out in the loser’s bracket. The Warriors of Hawaii island defeated St. John Bosco (Calif.) and Highlands (Ariz.) in morning matches before earning a spot in the loser-out contest with their Kapalama rivals at noon.

The Kamehamehas split the first two sets, forcing a decisive third. The Hawaii island Warriors, riding the seemingly bionic arm of junior Evan Enriques, looked in control late in Set 3 with leads of 19-14 and 21-17. Nick Ng’s 4-0 serving run started with an ace and ended with a free ball that dropped in front of the visitors’ back-row defense to tie at 21.

Enriques, his badly sprained left wrist again taped heavily, pounded down two of his match-high 35 kills to give his Warriors match point at 24-22. A serving error and a block of Enriques tied it at 24.

Cullen Mosher, who has committed to play at Grand Canyon next season, blasted a cross-court shot from the right to give the Oahu Warriors the first of their two match points. Kills by Enriques fended off both, knotting it at 26.

With a cap of 27, whoever scored the final point would win. In what host coach Kainoa Downing called a "weird, weird ending," Enriques was called for a foot fault on his serve attempt to give the Kapalama team the victory in anticlimactic fashion.

"With the game on the line, you’ve gotta rip it, you can’t give them a lollipop," Enriques said. "I led it (the toss) too much."

"It was a tough way to lose, Evan was running on empty," KSH coach Guy Enriques said of his son, who had 81 attempts with seven hitting errors. "You have to give them (the host Warriors) credit for coming back from behind. Their libero (Mike Horita) was all-world."

And playing in two high-profile tournaments on the same two days?

"We wanted to see what we had and they’re definitely fighters," Enriques said. "We’re young, we’ve got one guy (Evan) who carries us, so if the other guys do their jobs, we’re OK. We made some mistakes that cost us, but we got what we came here for."

So did the two finalists.

"It’s a great environment, it’s why we came back," Pazanti said. "More than anything, we want this experience of being away from home, school and the distractions. It’s about the camaraderie that is built when you’re together like this for a week. Hopefully down the road it will help when we call on these experiences we had this week."

"I was happy with the outcome of the tournament," Downing said. "Even though we lost that last one, we gained that experience of playing high-caliber teams. There were no weak teams here.

"What I like in the double-elimination tournament, every team has a chance to lose and still be in it. You have to show up every time you get on the court."