The Hawai'i Baptist Academy girls volleyball team threatened to slay its second Division I giant in eight days last night, but three-time defending state champion Kamehameha denied the Eagles, 25-23, 28-26.

The visiting Warriors, ranked No. 1 in The Advertiser's statewide Top 10 poll of coaches and media, improved to 8-0 in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu. HBA, ranked No. 4 despite being classified as DII, fell to 5-1.

The Eagles upset defending Division I state-runner-up 'Iolani last week and served three times to potentially send last night's match to a third game, but Alex Akana tied it at 26-26 on a kill off a quick middle set and followed it with an ace.

Kamehameha then completed the sweep after a Hawai'i Baptist kill attempt went wide.

"HBA is a great digging team, they dig everything," said Kamehameha setter Caitlin Andrade, who is directing an offense that lost three Advertiser All-State first-team selections to graduation. "We just had to come together and stay focused."

The Eagles definitely kept the Warriors on their toes, especially at the end of both games.

Kamehameha broke off from a 10-10 tie in the first game to go up, 20-13, but HBA made a late run to close it to 24-23 after a double block by Sarah Palmer and Taryn Bohan. With the partisan crowd of about 500 pumped up by the rally, the Warriors then ended it on a block by Talia Jardin.

The Eagles rebounded well in game 2, taking a 15-12 lead. But a serving error followed by two hitting errors tied it at 15-15, and the teams traded points until 23-23, with the crowd noise again at a crescendo.

Palmer's kill put HBA up, 24-23, but Misty Ma'a answered with a kill to tie it again. After the teams traded serving errors, another service error by Kamehameha gave the Eagles a 26-25 lead. But that's when Akana spiked her kill down the middle, and followed with her ace and another tough serve that led to the winning point.

"I'm very happy with how our team responded, the way they fought off three game points," Warriors coach Chris Blake said. "They did a good job of fighting through adversity and bouncing back."

HBA pulled off last week's upset largely behind a tough serve that produced five aces, but last night the Eagles committed nine serving errors, including five in the first game.

"With serving tough, you've gotta take some of the errors that go with it," HBA coach Myles Shioji said. "If we give them easy serves, then we'd just be letting (Kamehameha) play their system."