Punahou might have done Kamehameha a favor by beating the Warriors for the ILH title last week.

The Warriors continued their domination of the first round of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Boys Volleyball State Championships, rolling over McKinley 25-16, 25-22, 25-21 at Waipahu on Wednesday night.

"This is what I like about the first round," Kamehameha coach Kainoa Downing said before slowing his speech for emphasis. "High school kids need to play first round states to get the nerves out. You saw it with us, we had nerves. Having a bye in the first round is tough, I don’t care who you are."

The Warriors were a little sloppy when they hit the floor, but it didn’t matter because the nerves hit the Tigers so much harder. McKinley played Kamehameha even in the first 10 points to tie it at 5, but Kamehameha’s Cullen Mosher served up two aces and the Warriors took off from there. It helped that McKinley’s best attacker, Jerry Wu, started slow and was held without a kill in the first set and had five of his team’s six errors. Kamehameha’s Kaehu Kaaa closed the Tigers out with a blast at the feet of McKinley’s Devin Lee.

"I want to say the kids were nervous, but that should have been done after the first five points," McKinley coach Chad Giesseman said. "We have been in these games before. A couple of our best players didn’t have their best games today. They picked a bad time to have a bad game."

The Tigers, who have been a tough matchup for every team they have faced this year, roared back in the second set. They hung with the bigger Warriors throughout and closed the margin to 23-22 on an ace by Landon Akau, Thor Akana’s stuff of Kamehameha middle blocker Makana Harrison and a net violation.

Kahiau Machado made things right for the Warriors on the next point, beating Lee high. McKinley’s Brandon Walker hit way long to give Kamehameha the 2-0 lead.

Kamehameha let McKinley hang around early in the third set, leading 13-12 before going on a 4-0 run and holding the margin the rest of the way.

"I think we showed a lot of people that we can actually hang with these teams," Giesseman said. "I’m definitely proud of my boys."

Akau led McKinley with eight kills and three aces and Walker added five kills. Mosher led Kamehameha with 10 kills and Harrison added nine kills and six blocks.

The Warriors play BIIF champion Waiakea today at Waipahu, and Downing believes one slight edge he might have is the experience of having his kids put their feet on the floor.

"This floor is slippery, it’s actually dangerous," Downing said. "It’s going to be tough for Waiakea to come in here. But they have a lot of good players and they are coached well, so we gotta go."

Leilehua 3, Maui 0

Dakota Soliai had eight kills and five aces and the Mules swamped the Sabers 25-19, 25-23, 25-22.

Elijah Suivaaia contributed eight kills to Leilehua’s attack. Jaryn Kuhaulua-Feiteira led Maui with 14 kills.