Punahou made surprisingly quick work of 'Iolani last night, sweeping the Raiders, 25-10, 25-20, to set up a likely playoff for the Interscholastic League of Honolulu girls volleyball first-round title next week.

The Buffanblu, ranked No. 4 in The Advertiser's statewide Top 10 poll of coaches and media, improved to 13-1 in ILH play and are tied with No. 1 Kamehameha (13-1) for first place. The first round ends Saturday, and if both teams win — Punahou plays La Pietra and Kamehameha faces St. Francis — and remain tied for first, a playoff will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Kamehameha. The winner will be first-round champ and secure one of the league's two Division I state tournament berths.

'Iolani, ranked No. 2, fell to 12-2 and can finish no lower than second in the second round to keep its state tournament hopes alive.

The Raiders started very slow last night and trailed 9-0 in the first game. The lead grew to 12-1, 15-4 and 23-8 as the Buffanblu converted numerous 'Iolani mistakes into points with smooth execution on its side of the court.

A crowd of about 750 at the Raiders' gym — which had been vocal at first serve — could only offer sporadic cheers as 'Iolani struggled to reach double digits.

"You cannot spot that kind of a team that many points," Raiders coach Jenic Tumaneng said of the 9-0 deficit. "At the end, you're going to run out of points."

Punahou had faced another tough road atmosphere just four days prior, sweeping No. 5-ranked Hawai'i Baptist.

"In the beginning of the day, we were just pumped up at school, we were excited to go out and beat another good team," said Buffanblu senior setter/outside hitter Anuhea Keanini. "We just had to stay focused on the little things."

'Iolani recovered to make the second game tight early, tying it at 5-5. But Brigitte Russo had two kills and a block to spark Punahou on a 6-0 run, and after I'ishah Keli'ikoa spiked two kills to help the Raiders close to 13-9, Lahela Williams had an ace and served four straight points to make it 17-9.

'Iolani scratched its way back to cut it to 20-15, and Alissa Youart had a kill and Chelsea Hardin had a block to help close it to 21-18.

But after the teams traded points, Juliana Behrens had a kill to make it 23-19, and Tai Manu-Olevao's kill off a block down the left side line ended the match after just 49 minutes.

"I actually didn't like that we won the first game like that (by 15 points), because then we might have thought we were better than we really are," Buffanblu coach Jim Iams said. "'Iolani is such a good team, they just needed that glimmer of hope in the second game to make a run, and they did."

But Tumaneng said the Raiders never could quite solve Punahou's aggressive serve, which often sent 'Iolani's back row scrambling and made it difficult to get into any kind of rhythm on offense.

"They served aggressive, and we just had trouble taking that pass," Tumaneng said. "They stuck with their game plan, and they were not going to give us easy balls to handle. We couldn't make a run — we would finally get a point, then we'd give it right back with a serving error."

Keanini said the Buffanblu knew they had to maintain their intensity, despite the easier-than-expected first game.

"We didn't want to take them lightly," Keanini said. "We wanted to keep doing what we did in the first game and try to eliminate as many mistakes as possible."