Iolani dethrones Punahou

Raiders win in three, deny Buffanblu fourth straight championship

By ROBERT COLLIAS, Staff Writer
PUKALANI — With tears in his eyes and his 4-year-old son Kaeo in his arms, Iolani School coach Mike Among searched for the right words amidst a sea of well-wishers.

Among couldn’t get very far in describing his team’s dramatic 25-22, 22-25, 25-20 win over previously unbeaten Punahou in the title match of the New City Nissan Boys Volleyball Division I State Championships without talking about Brad Lawson.

The 6-foot-7 senior outside hitter who is headed to Stanford University in the fall did in the mighty Buffanblu, winners of the last three state titles, with 28 kills — 23 more than any of his teammates — five blocks and a .430 hitting percentage.

Half of Lawson’s kills came in the final game — only the third Punahou has dropped all season — and 10 came from the back row.

‘‘We told the team that he is the best player in the nation,’’ Among said of Lawson, the tournament’s most outstanding player. ‘‘He knew he had to put everybody on his back and he struggled with that at times this season, but tonight you saw what he could do. He wasn’t everything — we had guys making plays, digs, blocks, all over the place — but he was a lot of it.’’

Lawson returned to the Raiders (16-4) three weeks ago after missing eight matches with knee and back pain, but Saturday he was ready.

‘‘I was 100 percent for this match, no doubt,’’ he said with his gold medal wrapped around his neck. ‘‘I maybe had some hip pain, but the adrenaline took care of all of it.’’

The Raiders were swept three times by the Buffanblu in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu regular season.

‘‘We came into the season ranked seventh in the nation and first in the state on some online thing and we didn’t handle it very well, I didn’t handle it very well,’’ Among said. ‘‘Maybe we were thinking we were better than we were and not putting in the work. We struggled in the middle of the season, but tonight I am so proud of these boys. For the last two weeks they have done everything I asked and we managed to qualify for this tournament, which was a precious present.

‘‘When we got here, we started counting down. I asked them if they were one of the 12 best teams in the state and they said, ‘Yes.’ Then I asked them if they were one of the eight best teams, one of the four best and then one of the two best. Now, we are champions.’’

A stunned Punahou crowd, which formed about 75 percent of the 1,000 or so fans in the gym, watched quietly as the Buffanblu (18-1) accepted their silver medals.

‘‘I tell you what, Brad Lawson deserved this one, Iolani deserved this one,’’ Punahou coach Rick Tune said. ‘‘I have seen a lot of volleyball — and for that boy to have been injured all season and do what he did tonight is amazing. He is just a great player. He is a guy that no matter what the game plan, he will break it. Brad just got real hot tonight and we couldn’t stop him.’’

In the first game, the Buffanblu’s Jeremy Kaimikaua and Maddison McKibbin blocked Lawson on the first point, but that only seemed to turn on his engine.

A kill by Punahou’s Henry Cassiday, one of his team-high 17 on the night, put the Buffanblu in front 15-11.

Then Lawson took over.

He had three straight kill before Tyler Donovan tied the score at 15-15. There were nine ties in the first game, the final one at 19-19.

Lawson had a kill to give Iolani a 22-20 lead, and followed that with a block that put the Raiders in front by three. One more block by the tallest player in the tournament brought game point, and Iolani closed it out on a Punahou error.

Punahou burst out to 8-3 and 12-7 leads in Game 2 and Iolani would get no closer than two the rest of the way.

There were five early ties in the third game before a string of four kills and a block by Lawson in a seven-point stretch gave Iolani a 15-8 advantage. Punahou climbed back within 16-15 on a block by Cassiday, but then Lawson went to work one more time. He had three kills from the back row to make the score 20-17, and then went on another three-kill run that made it 24-20. The championship point was put down by Tyler Donovan after a scorcher by Lawson forced an overpass.

Lawson will join Punahou setter Erik Shoji at Stanford in the fall. The Cardinal already have four Hawaii players on the roster, including Kawika Shoji of Iolani and Spencer McLachlin of Punahou.

‘‘Hawaii can be real proud of the Stanford team next year,’’ Among said. ‘‘They have a ton of Hawaii kids and more than half of them are going to start next fall.’’

Lawson said he is looking forward to playing with Erik Shoji, who had 13 digs and 28 assists Saturday.

‘‘He is an unbelievable player and I can’t wait to play on the same team as him, but we still have some celebrating to do right here, right now,’’ Lawson said.

• Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com