The moment is now for Punahou.

Punahou's middle attack complemented its outside forces as middle hitter Brigitte Russo had 16 kills and outside Juliana Behrens had 11 to lead top-seeded Punahou to a 25-19, 25-17, 25-23 victory of Moanalua in last night's semifinals of the New City Nissan/Hawai'i High School Athletic Association Division I Girls Volleyball Championships at McKinley's Student Council Gym.

Punahou (21-0), the Interscholastic League of Honolulu champion and last year's state runner-up, will meet four-time defending state champion Kamehameha (19-3) in today's 7 p.m. championship match at the Stan Sheriff Center.

"It's definitely exciting ," Russo said. "I just found out we get to play Kamehameha and we want a payback from last year.

"I can't wait until tomorrow , I'm so excited now. It's definitely our time to prove it this year."

Kamehameha swept second-seeded Kahuku, 27-25, 25-16, 25-20, in a semifinal match at Radford last night.

Middle Carina Thompson had nine kills and four blocks and outside Tai Manu-Olevao had five of her eight kills in Set 1 for Punahou.

Gabriela Matautia had 12 kills, Erin Perez and Tasha Meyer had eight each and libero Katiana Ponce had 27 digs for Moanalua (17-4). Whenever Moanalua got close to Punahou, Buffanblu coach Jim Iams reminded his team to stay in the present.

"When a team digs as many balls as they dig, you just have to stay with it and I tell them at some point, you're going to put the ball away," Iams said. "They play a great game over there and have some great defenders that made us work awfully hard."

Punahou led 7-3 early in Set 3, but Moanalua rallied to tie it 9-9, then stayed close the rest of the way.

Matautia's kill tied the set at 20-20, but Russo's kill in the middle gave Punahou the lead. Matautia responded with a kill to tie it at 21.

The set was tied again at 22-22 before Thompson had a kill down the middle and Ali Santi had a kill from the right to put Punahou at match point that forced Moanalua to call a timeout.

"Our coach always tells us to breathe and that's our little strategy," Russo said. "We just get together and say this is teamwork, we can't separate each other, like be an individual, we have to be a team. We just have to do it together, one-by-one, just one point at a time."

Carsen Mata's kill out of the timeout cut the deficit to 24-23, but Thompson and Santi's double block ended the match.

"We made more errors than they did, unforced errors," Matautia said.

Moanalua made up an early four-point deficit in Set 1, and led 17-15 after a block by Perez and Coty Barrientos.

Punahou called a timeout and the set was tied at 17-17 after a Moanalua service error and rotation violation.

Perez's kill tied the set at 18-18, but Punahou used a 7-1 run to close it out. Russo and Behrens had two kills each and setter Malia Patterson's kill ended Set 1.

The Buffanblu used a 12-3 run to break open a close game early in Set 2. Lahela Williams' tough serving resulted in two service aces while throwing off Moanalua. Russo had two kills and a kill by Thompson made it 19-9.

"I felt pretty confident, me and Carina, we're getting a lot of sets and that was good," Russo said. "We were able to execute, which is what we need right now."

Nä Menehune got no closer than six points the rest of the way and Williams' third ace ended Set 2.

Patterson finished with 36 assists in the win.

"Malia, she definitely did a great job today, putting it where we could execute," Russo said.