PUHI — The No. 3 seeded team of Tane Orial and Teyanni Esaki from Kauai High School defeated No. 4 seed Shannon Sitzler and Chelsea Ferrer of Kapaa in the finals Friday morning at the Kauai Community College tennis courts.
PUHI — The No. 3 seeded team of Tane Orial and Teyanni Esaki from Kauai High School defeated No. 4 seed Shannon Sitzler and Chelsea Ferrer of Kapaa in the finals Friday morning at the Kauai Community College tennis courts.
Orial and Esaki went on to defeat Sitzler and Ferrer, 6-0, 6-1, for top honors in the girls doubles division.
The matchup was set up after the Kauai girls upset the top seeded team of Island School’s Katy Davidson and Alex Obert on Thursday during the opening round of the state qualifying tournament.
“I don’t know what happened,” Orial said of beating the top seed before winning the tournament. “The match went three sets. We just got the ball back and didn’t do anything fancy.”
Greg Gonsalves, the Kapaa High School athletic director, said the finalists of the girls and boys doubles and singles teams will all be heading to the Carlsmith Ball Hawaii High School Athletic Association state tennis tournaments on Oahu from May 7-9.
The Harrison brothers, Kai and Wyatt, topped the boys doubles division with a win over No. 3 seed Waimea’s Gilson Guillermo and R. Saiki, 6-2, 6-1. Both teams advance to the state tournament.
Island School’s Davis Huffman, top seed in the boys singles, had a wake up call when Kauai’s Braden Myrick, seeded No. 2, got the first set 6-4. Following the early setback, Huffman battled back in a tie-breaker, 7-6 (7-2) before settling the division with a 6-2 win. Both Huffman and Myrick will be advancing to the state tournament on Oahu.
On the girls singles court, another upset took place Thursday when unseeded Waimea’s Ashley Pascual, playing for her first season, got past No. 4 seed Emily Evans, also of Waimea, 6-4, 6-4.
The win pit Pascual against the No. 2 seed Mia Fitzgerald of Island School in the semifinals. Mia earned the right to meet her sister Michaela Fitzgerald in the finals with a 6-0, 6-1, win.
During the finals, the benefit of experience went to Michaela, who prevailed 6-3, 6-2, over her younger sister. Both of the Fitzgerald girls will be representing the Kauai Interscholastic Federation in the girls singles play on Oahu.
