After 10 thrilling, exhausting match points, the Roosevelt High School girls volleyball team finally outlasted Kalani, 20-25, 26-24, 29-27, last night in O'ahu Interscholastic Association semifinal action at McKinley's Student Council Gym.

The Rough Riders (12-2) will play Kahuku, a 25-20, 19-25, 25-19 winner over Moanalua, for the title on Thursday.

That should give them just enough rest to recover from last night's two-hour marathon, a physically and mentally draining thriller that defied traditional rally-scoring odds.

Down 23-20 in game 2, Roosevelt rallied to tie it at 23 and then won it on a daring jump serve by sophomore Meleana Yamashiro. The Rough Riders built a seemingly insurmountable 24-18 lead in the third game, only to see the Falcons (7-8) score six straight points.

Roosevelt then had chances to put it away at 25-24, 26-25 and 27-26 before finally ending it on Hoku Oleole's spike down the middle.

"Whew, that was fun to watch," said Rough Riders coach Bryan Camello, echoing the thoughts of a vocal crowd of about 500. "We've never seen Kalani at full strength like this before, but this is the playoffs, and everybody wants it a lot more, everybody's going to play better."

Kalani, suffering from injuries to two key starters during the regular season, entered the playoffs with a modest 5-7 record. But the Falcons notched two playoff victories and appeared in control of last night's match through most of the first two games, holding the lead almost throughout both.

They were especially strong on defense, routinely digging Roosevelt's best spikes even after free-ball opportunities.

"We had to stay on our toes, because they were playing really good defense," said Rough Rider junior Kahea Pupuhi, who finished with 16 kills.

Camello said he expected as much from a veteran Kalani team that will be playing in its third straight state tournament.

"They've been here before, they know what it takes," Camello said. "Their defense was tough — nothing hit the floor."

Roosevelt finally found some openings to tie it at 23 in the second game, then Yamashiro's kill made it 25-24. With tensions still sky high, Yamashiro then surprisingly tossed the ball in the air and served a line drive ace.

"That was my call," Yamashiro said of the decision to jump serve. "I wasn't looking at the score; I was just trying to win the point."

Camello said he had no problem with her call.

"I trust her doing that and will take my chances with her jump serve," he said.

Pupuhi agreed.

"That was a risky serve," she said, "but I had plenty confidence it would work."

The ace apparently swung the momentum of the match, as the Rough Riders took control in game 3 to go up 24-18.

But the Falcons would not go away, digging spike after spike and scoring points with zero margin for error to tie the score at 24, 25, 26 and 27.

"That means more to me than winning," said John Ahuna, Kalani's first-year coach. "To me the girls learned a valuable lesson tonight, something that will stay with them. What they will remember about this match is how they came back from being down so many times, and that type of thing will give them the confidence to do anything in life."

KAHUKU DEF. MOANALUA

Ane Vea had 13 kills and four digs and Camilla Ah-Hoy added 11 kills as the defending champion Red Raiders held off the hard-charging Menehunes.

After trailing the third game 8-4, Kahuku (13-1) scored six straight points and never trailed again. Moanalua (11-4) fell behind 19-13 but rallied to close to 21-18, only to see the Red Raiders end it with a 4-1 run.

Kaleinani Kabalis scored a match-high 15 kills for the Menehunes.

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.