Waimea High School senior Lani-Rae Green was the sole Kauai Interscholastic Federation tennis player to earn a seed at the Carlsmith Ball Hawaii High School Athletic Association Hawaii Tennis Championships. And she was the only Kauai player who advanced through
Waimea High School senior Lani-Rae Green was the sole Kauai Interscholastic Federation tennis player to earn a seed at the Carlsmith Ball Hawaii High School Athletic Association Hawaii Tennis Championships.
And she was the only Kauai player who advanced through rounds in the tournament, too.
Played at the Wailea Tennis Club and the Makena Tennis Club last week on Maui, Green was seeded No. 3 in girls singles, handily advancing past Kealakehe’s Fiona Miranda, 6-1, 6-1 to advance.
“The Waimea Menehune were very proud this past week at the tournament,” said Waimea coach Adrian Alvarez in an email. “Senior Lani-Rae Green was the No. 3 seed and following fairly easy opening rounds, got a lot tougher when she faced the tournament’s top seed and three-time defending state champion Alyssa Tobita of Mililani.”
Continuing in the Round of 16, Green advanced against Niki Tamashiro of Punahou, 6-1, 6-0 and in the quarterfinals, No. 8 seed Hina Goldsmith of Roosevelt, 6-1, 6-1.
Despite a strong opening set against Tobita in the semifinals, the Menehune senior dropped to the Mililani player, 7-5, 6-1.
“The first set was an epic battle with both girls trading heavy but precise groundstrokes,” Alvarez said. “They went back and forth for what seemed like hours with Alyssa taking the first set, 7-5. Although the score appeared one-sided in the second set, the set was more of the two girls trading blows with Tobita taking the final points to win the games. I was very proud of Lani-Rae for fighting the way she did.”
Michaela Fitzgerald of Island School, the second KIF entry in the girls singles, fell in the opening round to Taylor Lau of St. Francis, 6-0, 6-0.
Davis Huffman of Island School, unseeded in the boys singles, but the top KIF finisher, advanced past the opening round, defeating Shengyuan Su of McKinley, 6-4, 6-0 before being taken out in the Round of 16 by Daisuke Nakayama of Iolani, 6-0, 6-0.
Kapaa’s Kalani Murakami, the second KIF entry in the boys singles, was taken out in the opening round by Hideto Kitagawa of the Mid-Pacific Institute, 6-0, 6-2.
On the boys doubles court, the Menehune duo of Bradley Cano and Marcus Pereira — making his first appearance at states — was edged out by the Parker duo of C.J. Brown and Ryp Ring, 6-4, 6-2 (7).
“Senior Bradley and sophomore Marcus Pereira played their hearts out but came up short in the first round,” Alvarez said. “The duo lost the first set, 4-6, but came back in the second set to win, 6-2, forced a third set tie-breaker. During the third set, their opponents jumped out quickly to a 7-3 lead before the Menehune reeled them back to tie the score, 7-7. Eventually, the Menehune pair lost, 10-8, but I was proud of them for not giving up and coming back the way they did.”
Kapaa’s Kai Harrison and Matthew Steinohrt dropped their opening round to the pair of Jace Akagi-Okuma and Davin Lee of Mililani, 6-1, 6-1.
On the girls doubles court, Island School’s duo of Katy Davidson and Alex Obert fell to Marissa Hayashi and Kindsey Kimura of Waiakea, 6-2, 6-0.
The same fate fell on the Kauai High School pair of Tarryn Orial and Danika Thompson, who fell to Skyla Alcon and Cori Cummings of the Mid-Pacific Institute, 6-0, 6-0.
