LIHUE — Twelve tennis players representing the Kauai Interscholastic Federation will advance to the HMSA Hawaii High School Athletic Association tennis championships that will contest at the Central Oahu Regional Park, May 3 through 5.
The dozen players represent the winners and runner ups of contests in boys singles, girls singles, boys foubles and girls foubles which contested during the KIF qualifying matches that wrapped up Friday at the Timbers Kauai at Hokuala tennis courts after being rained out of its original venue, the Kauai Community College tennis courts.
“We have seven players going,” said Shannon Burkman, the Kauai High School coach, while watching the finals of the girls doubles, a match between the tournament’s top seed, Hoku Iseri and Katherine O’Neill battling an unseeded Kauai duo — the team of M. Kanna and C. Parsons.
The Kanna/Parsons pair opened by defeating Waimea’s pair of L. Tanigawa and A. Bravo (6-1, 6-4) before getting past the tournament’s second seed, Waimea’s L. Uri and J. Gawaran, 6-2, 6-2.
The Kanna/Parsons win pit them against Kapaa’s unseeded pair of Leila Nelson and Hannah Collins-Doijode who also bested a seeded team, the No. 3 seed pair of B. Lee and H. Whelan from Island School, 6-2, 6-0, to face the Kauai Kanna/Parsons pair.
Kanna and Parsons advanced to face the tournament’s top seed, Hoku Iseri and Katherine O’Neill, with a 6-3, 6-1 win over the Warriors, but came up short when Iseri and O’Neill put away the finals with a 6-2, 6-0 win.
Waimea High School will be sending four players, including the runner ups from the girls and boys singles, and the runner up team from the boys doubles.
“The Waimea players have been working really hard,” said Beverly Tumbaga, one of the Waimea coaches. “Wendell Batangan, our boys singles player, has been playing for just a year.”
Batangan, seeded second in the qualifying tournament, was pitted against Island School’s Sasha Rovinsky, top seed, who took care of business, 6-0, 6-0 to advance to the state tournament with Batangan.
“I’m excited to return to states,” Rovinsky said. “I was there last year and was beat by the No. 1 seed in the opening round. States is definitely a level above, and I think I’m ready to take that on.”
Earlier, Rovinsky beat out Kauai’s Thomas Vetter, 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals, and took care of Kauai’s Dwayne Ancajas, an upset winner over No. 4 seed Glen Aguada of Kapaa, 6-0, 6-4.
Waimea’s Batangan climbed the tree with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Kauai’s Grant Urmatam in the quarterfinals before getting past No. 3 seed Noah Howard of Island School, 6-2, 7-6 (9) in a tie-breaker in the semifinals.
“I’m so happy,” is all Kauai’s Nick Badua could say after he and his partner, Chris Constantino got past the tournament’s top seeded pair of Waimea’s Limar Medina and Edmelle Medina, 6-4, 6-2, in a match that was interrupted by a passing shower.
Constantino and Badua, seeded No. 2 in the tournament, advanced from the quarterfinals after getting past Kauai’s duo of T. Ochoco and K. Villanueva, 6-1, 60. They prevailed over the No. 3 seeded team of Kapaa’s M. Buick and J. Espi, 6-4, 6-4 to face the top seed in the finals.
Waimea’s Medina/Medina pair handily advanced the quarterfinals with a 6-0, 6-0 win over the Menehune team of J. Ochua and V. Altomare before taking the No. 4 seed team of Island School’s J. Engelhard and A. Meier in the semifinals, 6-0, 6-4.
On the girls’ courts, Kauai’s Anna Burkman, top seed in the tournament, prevailed in a three-setter over Waimea’s Kari Correa, second seeded in the tournament, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Earlier, Burkman was a 6-0, 6-1 winner over teammate Emily Melchor in the quarterfinals before downing Island School’s Lapis Dove, 6-0, 6-0 to face Correa.
Correa climbed her tree starting with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Kapaa’s Danica Gibson and worked No. 3 seed Tia Fulks of Kauai to three sets, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 to face Burkman in the finals.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
