LIHUE — Both the No. 1 seeds in the singles brackets won in the finals of the state qualifying tennis tournament at Kauai Community College on Friday. Waimea’s Lani-Rae Green defeated No. 2 seed Michaela Fitzgerald of Island School 6-0,
LIHUE — Both the No. 1 seeds in the singles brackets won in the finals of the state qualifying tennis tournament at Kauai Community College on Friday.
Waimea’s Lani-Rae Green defeated No. 2 seed Michaela Fitzgerald of Island School 6-0, 6-0.
“I felt pretty good. Michaela played really well,” Green said. “I had a really good match out there. I felt really confident about myself.
“I was hitting pretty solid and I was trying to move well on the court,” the Menehune senior added.
On the boys’ side, Island School junior Davis Huffman beat No. 2 seed Kalani Murakami of Kapaa 7-5, 6-3.
“I got to a point where I got to relax and just play my game,” Huffman said. “Kalani is a great player … The wind was pretty tough to play with, but we both acclimated and we both played our best.”
Huffman added he looks forward to seeing how well he can do at the state tournament.
“The players over there are outstanding,” the Voyagers junior said. “I’m going to go and try and play my game.”
On the doubles court, No. 2 seed Tane Orial and Danika Thompson from Kauai upset No. 1 seed Katy Davidson and Alex Obert of Island School 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 to win the girls doubles final.
“We were more focused. Starting working more on our footwork, getting set up for the ball and positioning,” Thompson said. “When we started the second set, we started getting more of a flow and getting more consistent.”
Orial added she and Thompson got through the match by supporting each other despite getting bad shots.
“(We) told each other we could do it,” Orial said.
In the boys doubles final, No. 1 seed Bradley Cano and Marcus Pereira of Waimea defeated No. 2 seed Kai Harrison and Matt Stenohrt of Kapaa 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.
Both Cano and Pereira said they were very nervous in the first set.
“We were not doing our best,” Cano said. “We figured it out fast when we talked to our coach … We told ourselves to slow down and do the fundamentals.
“We pretty much took over the net … That’s what we tried to do and it worked,” Cano added.
Pereira said this will be his first time participating at the state tournament.
“We’re looking forward to doing our best,” the Waimea sophomore said. “We’re expecting high-quality, top-notch players. We just want to give it our all.”
All of the finalists of the tournament will fly over to Maui to play in the Hawaii High School Athletic Association state championships, according to Kapaa head coach Rick Wanek.
The state tournament will be hosted at the Wailea Tennis Club and Makena Tennis Club on May 1-3.
