With a young team, Iolani girls volleyball coach Luis Ramirez knew he needed to get it more experience. He just didn't expect it would happen in one day.

Iolani fell to Los Alamitos of California in the championship of the Ann Kang Invitational at Iolani yesterday. Los Alamitos captured the 15-point championship match, 15-7.

"(Los Alamitos) has played together much longer," Ramirez said. "But we really needed the playing time. I don't think we would have beaten them if we had played them earlier in the tournament."

Iolani, which made it to the championship match for the first time, beat Los Alamitos 25-21, 21-25, 26-24, for a chance to play it again for the championship in the double-elimination tournament.

Iolani had to rally and win three matches to return to the championship match after losing its first match of the day to Bakersfield of California.

"We're a brand-new team, I think we've had a week of practice," said senior middle blocker Megan Burton. "Losing the first match made us really want it. We set a goal to finish in the top three, and we surpassed that."

Iolani won Game 1, helped by an 11-5 run after being down 16-14.

In Game 2, Los Alamitos' own run of five straight points gave it an 18-14 lead. The teams traded points before Iolani served out to end the game.

In Game 3, Los Alamitos jumped out to a 7-2 lead, before Iolani caught it at 11. Iolani sophomore outside hitter Leinani Keanini ended the match on her third straight attempt from the left side, which hit a soft block and fell to the ground.

It forced the playoff, which Los Alamitos dominated, led by senior outside hitter Rachel Moss, who committed to Duke, who scored six of Los Alamitos' final seven points.

"I knew it was going to be a battle," Los Alamitos coach Jimmy Munoz said.

Munoz added that he has heard his team will be ranked in the top 10 nationally by in the Prepvolleyball.com poll.

Sophomore outside hitter Lauren Minkel led Iolani with 15 kills, Keanini finished with 13 kills, and Burton 11, with five blocks, in the two matches.

The Ann Kang Invitational, formerly the Iolani Invitational, was renamed in honor of Kang, a longtime Iolani coach who died in 2003 after she was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.