Kamehameha appeared defeated, down by two sets and deep in a hole in the third, but the Warriors found the right spark and snared a 20-25, 30-32, 25-23, 25-14, 15-8 victory over Punahou on Friday at the Hawaii Baptist gym.

With the win, Kamehameha (13-4) captured the Interscholastic League of Honolulu second-round girls volleyball championship and moved on to play first-round champion ‘Iolani (14-2) today at 3 p.m. at the Raiders’ gym for the overall league title. In addition, the Warriors joined ‘Iolani as the ILH’s representatives in the upcoming state tournament.

“We came back from down 0-2,” said Kamehameha junior outside hitter Kayla Afoa, who had 14 kills and was a big force when the match was on the line. “We did it with heart and by sticking together. We’re going to states and that’s amazing. It’s been our goal since we started the season. It’s a tradition for our school to go to states (every year since 2001) and it’s great that we get to carry that on.”

Punahou (11-5) will not get a chance to defend the state championship it won a year ago and did not make states for the first time since 2005.

“We made too many unforced errors in that third game,” Buffanblu coach Tanya Fuamatu-Anderson said. “We relaxed too much with that much of a cushion. You cannot do that with a team like Kamehameha. The girls have been told that many times. Kudos to Kamehameha. They kept fighting.”

The pivotal third set was tied six times in the early going until 9-9, when Punahou started to pull away with a 16-10 lead. With the Buffanblu leading 19-17 and needing six points to close out the match, Kamehameha stormed back with two kills by Kili Robins and one each by Brooke Ka‘awa and Lexis Akeo to go along with a Punahou error for a 24-21 edge. The Warriors closed it out from there to stay alive and bring it to the fourth set.

“We talked about our process that has brought us all the way through the season,” Kamehameha coach Chris Blake said about his team not giving in when it easily could have. “It came down to the girls knowing that we had something to prove. We caught them (the Buffanblu) in set three and we took care of business in set four. Game five could have gone either way, but we were riding the momentum.”

In the fourth set, Kamehameha had its system working and Punahou struggled. Two kills by Ka‘awa, one each by Akeo and Robins, and an ace by Lauren Condon gave the Warriors a comfortable 15-9 lead before they went on a 10-5 run to tie it up at two sets apiece.

In the fifth, the Buffanblu’s Va‘e Malufau hit one too long to end an extra-long rally and Kamehameha’s Afoa and Robins followed with kills for a huge 9-4 edge. Ka‘awa helped get to the finish line with three more kills.

Robins led the Kamehameha hitters with 20 kills and middle Shiloh Pelaras delivered 19. Ka‘awa finished with 15 and Afoa had 14, while Akeo, the setter, had six kills and 57 assists.

For Punahou, Dallas Lishman compiled 18 kills and Kiana Peroff pounded 13. Mehana Ma‘a added nine kills, and setter Nikki Lum worked for 40 assists. Malufau, meanwhile, added six kills and six blocks.