Roosevelt won its first O'ahu Interscholastic Association girls volleyball title since 1979 last night with a thrilling 25-20, 21-25, 25-19 victory over Moanalua.

A raucous crowd of about 1,200 at McKinley's Student Council Gym watched the Rough Riders (12-3) also earn the OIA's No. 1 seed and first-round bye in next week's state tournament. Moanalua, which was seeking its first league crown since 2000, fell to 13-2 and begins state tournament play on Monday.

"This is really big for our school," said Roosevelt junior outside hitter Emily Maeda, who finished with seven kills, two aces and a block. "Our coach (Bryan Camello) told us yesterday to write down the whole day on a piece of paper — what we would do from the time we woke up until the time we go to sleep — so this was like a second replay for us. We all wrote down that we're going to win, we all had that in our mind."

Roosevelt lost to Moanalua twice in the regular season, but started fast last night and held off a furious Menehune rally.

Roosevelt jumped out to an 11-3 lead in the third game, taking advantage of three Moanalua errors. But Na Menehune fought back, eventually tying it at 18.

"I told our girls they don't do anything easy," Camello said. "But they worked four or five months for this, so I wanted them to make sure they could have fun and enjoy the moment."

After Moanalua took a 19-18 lead, the Rough Riders ended the match with seven straight points, sparked by Kahea Pupuhi's three kills and two by Mele Yamashiro.

"They took care of the ball better than we did," Moanalua coach Tommy Lake said. "Even when they sent us free balls, we would mangle it. Those are missed opportunities we didn't convert."

But Lake said the Rough Riders' unshakable confidence also played a big role.

"Attitude-wise, they really went after it," Lake said. "Even after we came back on them, they kept coming hard. They definitely deserved to win."

Maeda served Roosevelt to a 7-0 run early in the first game to overcome a 4-1 deficit and the Rough Riders never looked back. Roosevelt stretched the lead to 14-7 at one point and the closest Moanalua got after that was 16-13.

"We had trouble with our setting and passing, but part of that is because Roosevelt served tough," Lake said. "We knew Emily and Hoku (Oleole) are good servers, but tonight team-wise they all served tough."

Na Menehune regrouped and started the second game with a 4-0 lead, then held off several challenges by Roosevelt. The Rough Riders got as close as 19-18, but after an error, Moanalua pushed the lead back to 22-18. Roosevelt then closed to 23-21, but Manutai's kill ended it and evened the match.

But the momentum swung back heavily in the Rough Riders' favor in the third game, and they finished strong after squandering the big early lead.

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.