Although slow starts threatened to derail its undefeated season, the Roosevelt boys volleyball team started "clicking" at the right time to advance to the championship match of the O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red Division tournament.

Roosevelt defeated previously undefeated Wai'anae, 26-24, 25-23, 24-26, 25-22, in a match that was closely contested the entire way last night at McKinley High School.

Roosevelt (14-0) plays tomorrow night for the championship against the winner of today's match between Mililani (12-2) and defending OIA Red Champ Wai'anae (12-1) in the double-elimination tournament.

"We have to bring our game again, because they are going to come way harder next time," Roosevelt senior outside hitter Kenneth Rewick said. "We're going to practice hard tomorrow and come way harder the next time."

The Rough Riders started out slow each set, a trend coach Kaui Mendonca said had been plaguing them all season. But midway through, they picked up their game.

"We started every set we played slow," Mendonca said. "I don't know why that was. Traditionally we start slow. ... For some reason we need a long warmup so I try to get them in early.

"We start clicking in the middle of the set, and that helps, but it doesn't help when you're playing a team like Wai'anae, and you can't come back. It helped in this case, but we'll see what happens Thursday."

In Set 1, Wai'anae held the lead at 19-17. But Roosevelt took it back at 20-19 on a kill by outside hitter Kainoa Mitchell. The teams traded points, and with the set tied at 24, Roosevelt scored consecutive points on two hitting errors by Wai'anae.

"I don't think we did that great, because we made a lot of mistakes but we'll work on it tomorrow and the next time hopefully we'll get it down," Rewick said.

"We've been doing that the whole season. It takes maybe 10-15 points before we get everything going."

In Set 2 it was the same, with each team going on early five-point runs before Wai'anae established a 22-19 lead. But the Rough Riders went on a 6-1 run to end the set, with three kills by Mitchell.

"This year, that's been good for us," Mendonca said. "The supporting cast, the other five guys, they contribute a lot. People don't see it because (Rewick) gets the most sets, but on the stats they do contribute a lot, as far as passing, digging, just getting their kills."

Mitchell ended with 16 kills and Aris Wong added 11 for the Rough Riders.

In Set 3, Wai'anae was able to hold off a Roosevelt run at the end, led by eight kills from senior outside hitter Anthony Robinson, who finished with a match-high 27 kills.

"We just try to contain how many sets he can possibly get," Mendonca said. "When he's in the back row, hopefully we make runs in that situation. Because we're not going to stop him but hopefully you can contain him."

The Rough Riders were again able to take control in the latter part of Set 4. It gained a 22-18 lead on a kill by Rewick. The Seariders closed to 24-22 on a Roosevelt error but Rewick ended it on his 25th kill of the night.

Wai'anae managed to take some positive from the loss.

"We knew we had to take a loss before it really mattered, so it was better to lose now than later, because we were undefeated this whole time," Robinson said. "Now we don't want to feel this feeling again, so now we're going to push harder.

"Now everyone is going to be more serious, no one is going to be fooling around. It woke us up."

Reach Leila Wai at 535-2457 or lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.

MILILANI TURNS BACK LEILEHUA IN FOUR SETS

Mililani defeated Leilehua, 25-15, 25-23, 18-25, 25-14, yesterday at McKinley gym to remain alive in the O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red Division boys volleyball tournament.

Mililani (12-2) plays Wai'anae today at Farrington in the double-elimination tournament. The Trojans already have one loss in the tournament, but can still make it to the championship match.

Leilehua (11-4) was eliminated from the tournament, but as one of the final four remaining OIA teams, it already earned a state tournament berth.