LIHUE — The winners of the four divisions — Boys Singles, Boys Doubles, Girls Singles and Girls Doubles — will advance to the HMSA Hawaii High School Athletic Association 2017 tennis championships on Maui, said Greg Gonsalves, the tournament director
LIHUE — The winners of the four divisions — Boys Singles, Boys Doubles, Girls Singles and Girls Doubles — will advance to the HMSA Hawaii High School Athletic Association 2017 tennis championships on Maui, said Greg Gonsalves, the tournament director for the qualify tennis matches.
The unseeded duo of Sydney Nice and Chiara Fumagalli from Kapaa took the Girls Doubles match after Kauai’s Kaylin Kukino and Hoku Iseri, top seeds in the tournament, defaulted on the third set of the finals after one of the Kauai team members needed to catch a flight at the airport.
Scheduled to contest early Friday morning, the matches were delayed due to rain at the Kauai Community College tennis courts.
The rain delay relocated the matches to the Hokuala Resort tennis courts after it was verified the courts were in a pocket of no rain.
Nice and Fumagalli were tied in the finals after dropping the first set, 2-6, and rebounding for a 7-5 win to force the third set.
“The value of a tournament is not always about winning,” said Ernie Blachowiak, a former Island School tennis coach and volunteer. “It’s about the lessons learned.”
Following a 6-3, 6-4 opening round victory, the Warrior pair advanced after the No. 2 seed, A Sclafani and Risa Whetsel of Island School defaulted, advancing the Kapaa girls to get past the tournament’s No. 3 seed of Ashley Pascual and Khryshia Pascual, 6-2, 6-0 for the finals.
Iseri and Kukino moved to the semifinals following a defeat of the No. 4 seed team of Julia Randolph-Flagg and Lily Flynn, 6-1, 6-4.
On the Girls Singles court, the No. 2 seed, freshman Anna Burkman, edged out the top seed Kari Correa of Waimea to get the autographed copy of the tournament tree.
After opening on a default, Burkman advanced to the quarterfinals, facing the tournament’s No. 3 seed, Isabella Kotsol of Kapaa. Burkman advanced to face Correa after getting past Kostol in three sets, 6-6(7), 6-1, 6-1.
Correa opened against Hannah Whelan of Island School, advancing to the quarterfinals following a 6-0, 6-0 win. She faced No. 4 see Tia Fulks of Kauai in the quarters, advancing following a 6-3, 6-4 win.
Defaults also marred the boys’ courts when No 4 seed Akira Takabayashi relinquished to Island School’s David Janshen, the top seed, during the quarterfinals.
“He had a very important test,” said Charles Fulks, the Kauai High School coach. “Akira played David before, and lost. But he did get in some scores, so who knows what would have happened?”
Sasha Rovinsky, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, opened with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Kapaa’s Kyler Tom to advance to the quarterfinals where he got past the tournament’s No. 3 seed, Edmelle Medina of Waimea to advance against Janshen.
No scores were available for the Boys Singles, or the Boys Doubles where the top seeded pair of Limar Medina and Joshua Subiate were waiting to see who they were going to face in the finals — the No. 2 seed of Kauai’s Trevor Carbonel and Cayson Lalin, or the No. 3 seed of Kapaa’s Jake DePeralta and Mason Buick.
