LIHUE — Kauai High School split its senior day series with Waimea High School Saturday during the weather-delayed Kauai Interscholastic Federation tennis matches contested at the Timbers Kauai Hokuala tennis courts.
Waimea boys prevailed 4-1 in tough competition where Kauai picked up its sole win on the boys first singles court, and Kauai suffered its first loss on the girls first singles court before coming back to hold off Waimea, 4-1.
“We are very proud of our players’ efforts today,” said Kauai head coach Shannon Burkman. “All of our Kauai players have been practicing very hard through the spring break and several holidays. Although the boys came up short, they played their hearts out in some epic, split-set matches. Our girls played tough, dropping just one set to Waimea.”
Kauai’s boys first doubles team of Trevor Carbonel and Sage Cierras split their match against Waimea’s Breicen Medina and Wendell Batangan, dropping the first set, 3-6 before rebounding to take the remaining two sets, 6-2, 6-1.
Waimea’s boys second doubles team of Breicen Medina and Wendell Batangan took that court in straight sets over Kauai’s Thaine Ochoco and Thomas Vetter, 6-2, 6-4, and the Menehune pair of Christian Pablo and Vittorio Altomare claimed the boys third doubles match following a tie-breaker in the second set against Kauai’s pair of Kai Villanueva. The Menehune claimed that court, 6-3, 7-6(2).
Kauai’s boys singles also suffered heart-breaking losses, both of those contests going to three sets.
On the boys first singles, Kauai’s Chris Constantino gave up the court to Waimea’s Limar Medina, 4-6, 7-5, and 4-6. Kauai’s Nicholas Badua, battling Waimea’s Edmelle Medina on the boys second singles court, dropped 2-6, 4-6, 6-7(6).
Waimea’s Kari Correa picked up the Menehune’s sole win on the girls first singles arena after downing Kauai’s Tia Fulks, 6-3, 6-1 in a match that had the gallery peering through the screens in the clearing skies.
Originally scheduled to start at 9 a.m., Kauai coaches peered at weather maps on smartphones to wait out the passage of the weather front before getting the first matches going around 1 p.m., the delay sending out groups of players and supporters to seek food elsewhere and squeeze in errands.
Over at Kauai Community College where Kapaa was scheduled to meet Island School, starting as early as 11 a.m., the courts and parking lot were deserted on multiple site checks.
Kauai girls came back from the opening loss to claim the remaining matches, starting with Anna Burkman taking Waimea’s Leslie Uri, 6-0, 6-2 on the girls second singles court.
The Raider duo of Hokulani Iseri and Katherine O’Neill defended the girls first doubles court over Waimea’s Micah Guillermo and Kristine Ruiz, 6-0, 6-0, and Kauai’s Miya Reese paired with Rina Takabayashi to claim the girls second doubles arena, 6-0, 6-2 over Waimea’s Juliene Gawaran and Monique Joy Lorenzo.
Kauai’s Callie Parson teamed with Selma Tausend to round out the string of victories on the girls third doubles court by defeating Waimea’s Carla Mae Satumba and Louisa Tanigawa, 6-0, 6-0.
KIF tennis continues Saturday when Kapaa travels to the Waimea High School courts for matches scheduled to start at 9 a.m. while Kauai will meet Island School at the Kauai Community College tennis courts. Those matches are scheduled to start at 1 p.m.
