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The Honolulu Advertiser

Punahou beats HBA in tuneup for state tourney

By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer

The No. 1 seeds in this week's New City Nissan Boys Volleyball State Championships — Punahou (Division I) and Hawai'i Baptist (DII) — each have a bye in today's first round.

But neither will have to shake off any rust entering tomorrow's quarterfinals.

Punahou, ranked No. 1 in The Advertiser's statewide Top 10 poll of coaches and media, and No. 2 HBA played a full-fledged "exhibition" match at Punahou last night — complete with game uniforms, referees and live scoreboard.

Punahou won, 25-19, 25-20.

"We want to make it as game-like as possible," Punahou coach Rick Tune said Monday night. "We wanted to go with a real state tournament warmup, not just prepare against ourselves or in a scrimmage. I think it will be to HBA's benefit as well as ours."

The DI tournament will have first-round doubleheaders at McKinley and Radford; the DII starts with doubleheaders at Farrington and Kalani (see schedule above).

Punahou won the Interscholastic League of Honolulu title with a record of 14-1, and HBA was the league's top DII team at 14-1. HBA's only loss was to Punahou in three sets.

HBA notched victories over Kamehameha and 'Iolani, both of whom are in the DI state tournament.

"No disrespect to other teams, but (the Eagles) are by far the best DII team out there, and we wanted to put our guys up against the best," Tune said.

Tune and HBA coach Teoni Obrey both said they want their teams sharp after a long layoff since the regular season ended. In the Eagles' case, it's been about a month since facing a ranked team; they played only DII teams in the second round of the ILH schedule.

"The last time we played (the Buffanblu) was before spring break, so we want to see how far we've gotten," Obrey said yesterday. "It's a great opportunity; this will totally help us."

Punahou also won the ILH last year and entered the state title match undefeated, only to be upset by 'Iolani. Tune said the Buffanblu also had a long layoff after the 2008 regular season, and he doesn't want it to be a factor this time around.

"It's something to consider," Tune said. "There's a lot of good teams in this tournament, there's more depth than we've seen the last three or four years. The way I see it, playing this (exhibition) match will be an asset."

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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