LIHUE — Kauai Interscholastic Federation tennis teams weathered late-breaking schedule changes and the chilly north winds to finish with split decisions Saturday at the Timbers Kauai at Hokuala tennis courts.
“We got a late notice, so to accommodate the change, we started an hour earlier so everything could be played,” said Donna Umetsu of the Kauai High School tennis coaching staff. “Kapaa and Waimea will play right after our matches with Island School.”
Kauai High School finished the day splitting its series with Island School, the Red Raider girls taking a 5-0 win, repeating its sweep of last week over the Waimea team, while the boys fell to the Voyagers, 3-2.
“It’s not just me,” said Shannon Burkman, the Kauai head coach. “It takes a village to coach the kids, and I’m fortunate to have a great staff. We are really proud of our team’s efforts today. They stayed in their matches mentally and made the necessary adjustments due to the windy conditions. The girls played tough and smart, giving up just one game in all of their matches. The boys had some incredibly competitive matches with two of the doubles matches going to split sets.”
Anna Burkman started the action early for Kauai, taking the girls first singles over Voyager Lapis Dove, 6-0, 6-0. That match was followed by Tia Fulks defeating Island School’s Emma Thain, 6-0, 6-0 in girls second singles.
In girls doubles, the Red Raider duo of Hokulani Iseri and Katherine O’Neill opened strong against the Island School pair of Bonnie Lee and Kalia Hamid by taking the first set, 6-0, and gave up the Raider wahines’ only game in the second set, 6-1.
Kauai’s Helena Huffman and Miya Reese were 6-0, 6-0 winners over the Voyager pair of Lily Reynolds and Paulino Do in second doubles, and the girls third doubles went to Rina Takabayashi and Callie Parsons by default.
While the boys were battling a gasp- and cheer-extracting split set in boys first doubles, Island School made its mark in boys first singles, where Sasha Rovinsky got past Kauai’s Chris Constantino, 6-4, 6-0. The boys first singles match followed a tough boys second singles battle where Red Raider Nicholas Badua got past hard-fighting Voyager Jan Eriglard, 7-5, 6-2.
In boys first doubles, Kauai’s Trevor Carbonel and Sage Cierras prevailed over Voyagers Noah Howard and Adrian Meier, 6-4, 5-7 and 6-3.
The Voyagers answered in boys second doubles when Kaikea Kaui and Andrew Scalafani got past Kauai’s Thaine Ochoco and Tanner Lee, 6-2, 6-4.
Island School broke the tie in boys third doubles when Patrick McKenna and Foster MyLychok took the Kauai pair of Jai Ganun and Grant Umatam, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2.
Following the morning sets, Waimea took on Kapaa in the afternoon series, the Menehune prevailing over Kapaa, 4-1 for the boys, and 3-2 for the girls.
Waimea next hosts Island School Saturday at the Waimea High School tennis courts. Kauai High School will play Kapaa Saturday at the Timbers Kauai at Hokuala tennis courts, both matches starting at 9 a.m.
