Senior hitters David Fink and Taylor Donovan each put away 10 kills and junior libero Scott Sakaida came up with a match-high 13 digs to lead No. 2 'Iolani past top-ranked Punahou in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu boys volleyball match last night at Hemmeter Fieldhouse. The scores were 25-21, 20-25 and 25-21.

'Iolani, which suffered its only loss of the season last week to Kamehameha, improved to 8-1. Punahou fell to 9-1.

"It's always a battle with (Punahou), they're always a well-coached team and they're huge this year," Raiders coach Mike Among said. "But, we had guys come through with their heart. We had guys do their jobs in little spots and execute their assignments and everybody contributed."

The opening set was closely contested until 'Iolani went on a 6-1 run to pull ahead 18-13. Back-to-back kills by Fink and Nick Christman made it 22-16 and forced Buffanblu coach Rick Tune to call his second timeout.

Punahou closed to 24-21, but Christman's solo block ended it.

"I'm glad this didn't happen in the last game of the season, you know, we have to look at the positives here," Tune said. "'Iolani played a great match. They popped up a lot of balls and did what they needed to do and the bottom line is we didn't."

Punahou rallied in the second set. Trailing 12-10, the Buffanblu went on a 6-1 run to take a 16-13 lead. Donovan cut the lead to 18-17, after he put away a kill on the second contact to catch the Buffanblu defense by surprise. Punahou responded with a 7-3 run, including five straight points, to close out the set.

"Everybody contributed to this team win, but in game two we got a little bit away from that, we started trying to do it on our own," Among said.

'Iolani committed six errors early in the third set to fall behind 9-7 before regrouping to score the next eight points, capped by a block by Christman and William Chambers that made it 15-9.

Punahou rallied and closed to 22-20, but Christman hit a high shot off the block and down to make it 23-20. The Buffanblu committed a costly error on the ensuing play, hitting a ball wide with no 'Iolani blockers up to give the visitors match point.

Maddison McKibbin and Jared Altenhoff stuffed the Raiders' next attempt, but Punahou served out on the second match point.

"We were going to come out firing, we knew Punahou was a good team," Sakaida said. "During the week, we had guys who were sick and unable to come to practice, but I think our team pulled together when it mattered the most: game time."

McKibbin led Punahou with 10 kills, 15 assists and five blocks. Taylor Crabb added 10 kills and Noah Hammond had 10 digs.

Logan Nowack had 20 assists and Chambers added four blocks for 'Iolani.