Chanteal Satele pounded 20 kills last night to help visiting Word Of Life hold off Sacred Hearts, 26-24, 23-25, 25-19, for the Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division II championship — the school's first ILH title in any varsity sport.

"I'm speechless," said Satele, a 5-foot-10 junior outside/right side hitter. "That was our goal for the season, to start a tradition for the school."

The Firebrands (14-5) did it with their third victory in four tries this season over the Lancers, including their second in six days.

Sacred Hearts (13-6) won the regular-season title in a playoff, but Word of Life won the ILH DII tournament, forcing last night's winner-take-all match.

"Both teams are good," Firebrands coach LeeAnn Satele said. "We're evenly matched."

That showed especially in last night's back-and-forth first two games.

Word of Life took a 23-20 lead in the first game, only to see the Lancers come back to tie it at 24 on Haili Pokipala's block. A Sacred Hearts hitting error put the Firebrands back up at 25-24, then a Lancers kill attempt went into the net to end it.

Word of Life built a 13-7 lead in the second game, but Sacred Hearts clawed back and tied it at 18. The Firebrands again went up 23-20, but Kylee Maneja scored on four straight kills following a Word of Life service error to even the match.

"I'm proud of the way our girls came back in the first two games," said Lancers assistant coach Darin Yoshinaka, who filled in last night because head coach Jonathon Tom was on a Mainland business trip. "But in the third game, I think Word of Life's power and athleticism took over. They've got great athletes."

The Firebrands again started strong in the third game, and this time Sacred Hearts could not come back. Word of Life jumped to a 9-4 lead, and the closest the Lancers got after that was 10-8. The lead eventually grew to 18-12, 22-14 and 23-15.

"They're a hard team to beat," Chanteal Satele said. "The whole week, we were focusing on their main hitters."

Yoshinaka said his team was trying to focus on Satele, but she would hit over or through the block anyway.

"We tried to adjust our height against her, but she was just too powerful tonight," Yoshinaka said. "It's like she gets stronger as the match goes along. Amazing. And she's just a junior. It's scary."

ILH Girls VOLLEYBALL

Reach Wes Nakama at wnakama@honoluluadvertiser.com.