Pearl City used a tenacious middle attack Wednesday night to wrap up its first volleyball championship since 1997.

The Chargers (8-5) got mega blocking and hitting production from Emma Harada-Suaava and Jaynah Martin to grab the OIA Division II volleyball crown with a 25-17, 25-21, 25-21 victory over Kalani at the Moanalua High gym.

Team passing and the smooth setting of Madison Garcia also contributed heavily to the winning effort against the scrappy Falcons (7-7).

“The best thing for us is that it was a team effort,” said Pearl City coach Dayne Teves, whose squad will be preparing for the upcoming state tournament, where it will have a seeded berth. “We can’t get those middles going without that pass and if the pass can’t get to that setter, the setter can’t deliver that middle. Today, it was clicking on all cylinders. It was great.”

>> Click here to see more photos of the match between Pearl City and Kalani.

Harada-Suaava finished with 12 kills and five blocks. Martin added 11 kills and two blocks, and Garcia chipped in with 35 assists.

“I feel like we worked too hard to not bring anything home,” Garcia said. “So we deserve that banner and that title. We made a legacy for Pearl City because it’s been so long since we got a championship. I’m glad it’s this year. I feel like we have the most athletic middles in the whole OIA and no matter what, they’ll do good. We have the potential to win states.”

Altogether, the Chargers, the OIA West’s second seed in the playoffs, had 11 blocks.

The OIA title won by Pearl City 22 years ago came before the league and state split teams into Division I and II in 2005.

Despite the loss, Kalani is also headed to the state tournament. The Falcons were going for their first OIA championship since 2003.

Maya Hamaoka swatted 12 kills to lead Kalani, and teammate Ami Evans added five. Two setters, Shaylee Yamada (13) and Rease Fujita (11) combined for 24 assists.

“We had trouble finishing and taking care of our side,” Hamaoka said. “We left our hearts out on the court and fought back a lot and that’s what matters.”

In the first two sets, there were 18 ties and seven lead changes.

The Chargers used a nine-point run in the first set to turn an 8-all game into a 17-8 lead and they got home easy from there.

In the second set, Kalani took a 3-0 lead, but Pearl City came right back to tie it 3-3. After that, neither team led by more than one point until Martin’s kill on a Garcia set put the Chargers up 17-15, and they proceeded to pull away.

The third set was all Pearl City, which built leads of 5-1 and 15-7. But the Falcons didn’t give in, getting as close as 24-21, denying the Chargers three times on match point before a thundering kill by Harada-Suaava from the middle to end it.

“We tried to prepare for their middles,” Kalani coach Janeen Waialae said. “We just couldn’t slow them down. We tried to serve them out of system, and when we did, we crept back in. My kids started to overanalyze and overthink. They began to question themselves and hesitate. We played OK, but we could have played better.”