In an HHSAA tennis tournament dominated by Punahou and the ILH, Waiakea and Iori Furuhata carried the banner for public schools.
Furuhata rebounded from a semifinal loss a day earlier and finished third – matching his seed Saturday – by beating Iolani’s Gervase Ngo 6-1, 6-2 on Maui, lifting the Warriors to a second-place finish.
“You can say we crashed the ILH’s party,” Waiakea coach Bill Brilhante said light-heartedly.
The doubles tandem of Maika Nucci and Bruin Yomono also reached the semifinals, but they lost their last two matches, including a two-set defeat in Saturday’s third-place match.
“Our big four carried us to second: Iori, Bruin, Maika and Paul (Brilhante),” Bill Brilhante said. “We also got a contribution from Dayne Kunimoto and Reyn Funai. Every point was so valuable.”
The only other noise to be made by the public schools in any of the four divisions came from Kalaheo’s Larissa Teramura, who took fourth, and Mililani’s Rozelyn Dizon and Kira Tobita, who took fourth.
Iolani’s Julia Visaya and Karli Vo kept Punahou from a clean sweep by winning the girls doubles title. In the quarterfinals, the top seeds ousted Waiakea’s Kiora Kunimoto and Chloe Takahashi 6-1, 6-0.
In the boys final, the Buffanblu’s Payton Jim On beat teammate Brandon Ramos 6-1, 6-0. Ramos beat Furuhata in the semis. Paul Brilhante lost a third-set tiebreak to Ngo in the quarters.
Top seed Elise Wong of Punahou denied Mid-Pac’s Kylie Canubida 6-3, 6-3 in the girls final. Wong’s run included a two-set win against BIIF champion Denby Nagata in the quarterfinals.
In boys doubles final, Tsubasa Okada and Tanner Ige downed Buffanblu teammates in straight sets. Okada and Ige ran through Nucci and Yomono in the semifinals.
