Seabury Hall was frustrated by Castle early in last night's match.

To get back into it, the Spartans decided to hit the ball softer.

Seabury Hall had four dink kills during an 11-4 run in the second game and it spurred the Spartans to an 18-25, 25-21, 25-16 victory in the quarterfinals of the New City Nissan/Hawai'i High School Athletic Association Division II Girls Volleyball Championships at McKinley.

"Ultimately, I told the girls to start showing some teeth," said Seabury Hall coach Scottie Zucco. "The game isn't won on any one play. Then we started playing volleyball."

Seabury Hall, the Maui Interscholastic League champion and No. 2 seed, will play Word of Life in tonight's 7:30 semifinal.

The Spartans' spurt in the second game gave them a 17-10 advantage. Yacine Meyer had consecutive dinks for kills to start the surge, Leslie Smith added one and Kaimi Rocha's dink made it 14-10. A Castle hitting error, an ace by Rocha and a double contact capped the rally.

"We just saw the camp fire (space among players) was open," Meyer said. "I was just looking for holes."

Rocha had 11 kills and Alex Bolduc nine for Seabury Hall.

Things didn't start out too well for Seabury Hall (13-0). Castle (12-6), the O'ahu Interscholastic Association's No. 3 team, scored the first four points. The Knights led 11-2 after an ace by Chantalle Delacouture.

Three consecutive Knights' hitting errors brought the Spartans to 19-14, but they couldn't get any closer.

The third game was tied at 9, but Seabury Hall went on an 11-4 run for a 20-13 lead. Rocha had four kills during the surge.

"I think we really picked up our energy, we were a little tight (in the beginning)," Rocha said.

WORD OF LIFE DEF. HILO

When Word of Life's Chanteal Satele gets hot, plays usually don't last too long.

The ball goes off her right hand, takes a fraction of a second to hit the floor and then bounces high above the players on the other side.

Satele had 20 kills — 10 in each game — as Word of Life beat No. 3 seed Hilo, 25-21, 27-25, in a quarterfinal at McKinley.

"I had some really nice sets put up for me," Satele said.

Word of Life, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu runner-up, went on a 6-0 run with Tianna Pearson serving to take a 20-18 lead in the first game.

"She kept them off-balance so they couldn't run their offense," said Word of Life coach Lee Ann Satele, the mother of Chanteal.

In the second game, Word of Life led 23-16, but Hilo's Rose Pearce served six in a row to tie it. It was tied 25-25 before Satele slammed two kills to end it.

"I think we came on at the end, but it was too little, too late," said Hilo coach Brennan Wong.

Makamae Namahoe had five kills and was in on six blocks for Hilo (15-2), the Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion.