KOHALA COAST — As expected, there were not too many surprises on the first day of the HHSAA tennis tournament on the courts of the Fairmont Orchid and Mauna Lani Sports and Fitness Club on Thursday.
KOHALA COAST — As expected, there were not too many surprises on the first day of the HHSAA tennis tournament on the courts of the Fairmont Orchid and Mauna Lani Sports and Fitness Club on Thursday.
Nearly all of the seeded players held steady, and a handful of BIIF athletes are still in contention.
Leading the way was Hilo’s Emily Soares, the No. 1 seed in the girls singles tournament. She reeled off a flawless victory over Roosevelt’s Loreen Lian, 6-0, 6-0. The three-time BIIF singles champ followed that up with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Iolani’s Cambrie Motooka to advance to the quarterfinals.
Soares’ opponent in the quarters will be No. 7 seed and fellow BIIF player Michelle Uyeda of Kealakehe. She advanced by dropping just a single game in two matches against Island School’s Mia Fitzgerald (6-1, 6-0) and Iolani’s Celeste Inouye (6-0, 6-0).
BIIF runner-up and No. 6 seed April Wong won her Round of 16 match 6-2, 6-0 over Kayleen Lau (Kamehameha Schools Maui). She will face No. 2 seed Katreina Corpuz out of Punahou in the quarterfinals.
In the boys singles openers, sophomore Viking and BIIF champion Gil Assi pulled away from Pearl City’s Dylan Gatiuan 6-4, 6-4, while Kohala’s Jameson Keyes downed Marcus Pereira (Waimea) 6-1, 6-4.
The wins set up a rematch in the BIIF championship in the Round of 16, and again, Assi got the best of Keyes, advancing with a 6-2, 6-3 win.
Other BIIF singles players to advance past the first round were Pancho Shelton (Konawaena) and Isaiah Moreno (Kohala). Both were upended in the next round.
The BIIF champion boys doubles team of Jakub Petras and Hayden Virtue bowed out after a tough opener with the No. 3 seeded Iolani pair of Jordan Azuma and Joey Hu. BIIF teams winning in the first round were Kohala’s duo of Michael Bartolome and Chance Souze, Waiakea’s Aaron Ideta/Michael Kawachika, and Konawaena’s BIIF runner-ups Anakele Apisaloma/Brant Yamamoto. No BIIF boys doubles team survived the Round of 16.
For girls doubles, Wildcat BIIF champions Rashai Kailiwai/Tayvia Yamagata were the lone survivors out of the first round. They went on to defeat Kaori Murakawa and Sydney Chun of Moanalua 6-0, 6-1 to advance to the quarters. The No. 5 seeded team will play against Mililani’s No. 3 squad of Haley Fujimori and Alysse Nakasat.
The tournament continues today with the quarterfinals and semifinals and concludes on Saturday with the four championship matches.