Haililani Pokipala had a match-high 10 kills and Kylee Maneja added nine to lift Sacred Hearts over La Pietra, 25-19, 23-25, 25-15, in the semifinals of the New City Nissan/HHSAA Girls Volleyball Division II State Championship at Radford's Jim Alegre Gymnasium last night.

Interscholastic League of Honolulu runner-up Sacred Hearts (16-6) will meet ILH champion and top-seeded Word of Life for the championship at 6 tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center.

La Pietra (11-10), third in the ILH, plays Kaua'i Interscholastic Federation champion Waimea (10-1) in the third-place game at 3 p.m.

Lancers head coach Jonathon Tom was quick to compliment the Lady Panthers.

"They improved a lot," he said. "I think they prepared well for us," he said.

Sacred Hearts swept La Pietra in their only other meeting during the ILH regular season.

La Pietra opened the match with three straight kills by Kalena Frank, Kate McGrath and Isabella Gee to take a 3-0 lead. Sacred Hearts rallied to tie it at 8-all and took the lead for good on the next play with a kill by Macy-Alexandra Mitravich. Charnelle Yap put away game point. She finished with six kills.

There were 10 ties and 11 lead changes in the second game.

The Lady Panthers took advantage of McGrath's tough serving, using a 5-0 run to take a 20-18 lead. However, a pair of La Pietra errors tied it at 20-all and the Lancers reclaimed the lead on a double block by Pokipala and Tiffany Phillips.

After two ties, Frank got one of her eight kills on a back set from Lei Marple to make it 24-23. Sacred Hearts was called for a net violation on game point.

The Lancers never trailed in the third game. They used a 6-2 run to take a 16-12 lead and finished the match with a 4-0 run.

"They have a great team, they pass extremely well, they served extremely well and they block extremely well," said La Pietra head coach Tony McInerny.

Ashanti Shih had eight kills for La Pietra.