Only two things have slowed down Waiakea tennis this season: the rain and Denby Nagata.
The Warriors got on a plane Wednesday morning to try and escape the former, and Nagata is among the slew of stiff competitors they’ll find at the HHSAA championships on Maui. The Kamehameha senior is the BIIF’s only seeded player not from Waiakea.
Beating the rain was the first step.
“The weather has not been accommodating,” Waiakea coach Bill Brilhante said. “Hoping to get a good practice in on Maui and get the players acclimated to the court.”
In what were originally scheduled to be home matches until a dreary forecast loomed, Waiakea swept the BIIF team titles Saturday against Hawaii Prep at Waikoloa, capping unbeaten boys and girls seasons. Waiakea nearly won all 10 matches against Ka Makani, but its No. 3 boys doubles tandem lost a third-set tiebreak.
“You can’t have it all,” Brilhante said, “but they definitely tried and performed well all year long.
”Consistent, high-level play, which, from a coach, that’s all you can really ask for.”
The seeds did not hold at the BIIF individual championships last month, and that was reflected in the seeding for the state tournament, which runs Thursday-Saturday at Royal Lahaina & Kapalua Tennis Garden.
Waiakea’s Iori Furuhata is seeded third in boys singles, behind Punahou’s Payton Jim On and Brandon Ramos, after beating teammate Paul Brilhante at BIIFs.
Bill Brilhante said “1-2 was pretty cut and dry,” and Furuhata was an easy choice to slot behind them because he owns a victory in junior play this year against Iolani’s Gervase Ngo, who was seeded fourth. Paul Brilhante, Waiakea’s No. 1 singles player until losing to Furuhata, is the sixth seed, one spot ahead of Moanalua’s Joshua Dela-Cruz. Brilhante beat the OIA champion in January.
Nagata was seeded sixth after taking down Waiakea’s top-seeded Jade Brilhante in a three-set BIIF final.
“The girls we’re a little harder (to seed) because there were no (recent) head-to-head matches,” Bill Brilhante said. “Prepademic, (Denby) was one of the top junior players.”
As a freshman at Iolani, Nagata teamed with Celeste Inouye to win an ILH doubles championship. Seeded first at the last state tournament to be held in 2019, they were ousted in the quarterfinals.
Jade Brilhante is unseeded, largely because she lost in January to Iolani’s Asiya Sharipova, who was given the eighth seed. On Thursday, Brilhante shouldn’t be lacking an edge when she meets seventh-seeded Margaret Hoe of Mid-Pacific.
“She’s definitely motivated,” her father/coach said. “She’s been doing almost double time with her training. She was frustrated (after the BIIF final). I think she had a sense that maybe she didn’t play her best match.”
In doubles, fourth-seeded Waiakea seniors Bruin Yomono and Maika Nucci didn’t drop a game in BIIF competition, and each will be making a second state appearance.
If Kiora Kunimoto and Chloe Takahashi can reach the quarterfinals, Bill Brilhante doesn’t figure his fifth-seeded tandem will be fazed if they have to go up against the top seeds, Iolani’s Julia Visaya and Karli Vo.
In junior action, Takahashi and Vo often play together.
“They are going to know exactly how their opponents play and what they are going to have to do in order to prevail,” Brilhante said.
In fact, he said, that’s true for most of the field. Familiarity from junior competition should keep surprises from happening “out of the blue.”
He’s hopeful Waiakea can compete for top-two team finishes.
“Our goal is to get them to hold their seeds, be focused in the early rounds and once they get into the quarters and semifinals, they’ll start playing other seeded players,” he said. “The goal is that each day, each match, you’re tennis is progressively better than the previous match and you try and peak at the end.”
BIIF championships
Saturday at Waikoloa
Boys
Waiakea 4, Hawaii Prep 1
Singles
Iori Furuhata, Waiakea, def. Chaz Fitz-Gerald, HPA, 6-0, 6-0
Paul Brilhante, Waiakea, def. Rin Motoki, HPA, 6-0, 6-0
Doubles
Bruin Yomono/Maika Nucci, Waiakea, def. Edoardo Greco/Zeke Sarosi 6-3, 6-0
Michael Nakano/Rhys Wilson, Waiakea def. Neil Steinvorth/Joao Ribeiro, 6-2, 6-0
Parker Smith/Shuntaro Hori, HPA, def. Parker Smith/Shuntaro Hori, Waiakea, 6-4, 2-6, 10-5
Girls
Waiakea 5, Hawaii Prep 0
Singles
Jade Brilhante def, Sydney Chin, 6-0, 6-0
Jada Igawa def. Catherine Hulugalle, 6-0, 6-0
Doubles
Kiora Kunimoto/Chloe Takahashi def. Emilia Tretau/Tiana Edwards, 6-0, 6-2
Haley Teramoto/Lisa Miyazaki def. Arabella Asuncion/Anuhea Elliot, 6-0, 6-3
Kate Newall/Jessie Higa def. Emily Humphrey/Tiffany Golden 7-6(6), 6-4
