Punahou having its way at state tennis tournament

HHSAA tennis championships?

More like Punahou Invitational.

Only ILH schools remained heading to Saturday’s championship matches on Maui, and the Buffanblu have a chance of sweeping all four divisions.

The last BIIF squad was eliminated from title contention in Friday’s semifinals. Waiakea’s Iori Furuhata, the third seed, fell to Punahou’s Brandon Ramos 6-1, 6-4, and the Warriors’ Maika Nucci and Bruin Yomono, seeded fourth in boys doubles, lost 6-1, 6-3 to the Punahou’s top-seeded Tsubasa Okada and Tanner Ige.

Earlier in the quarterfinals, Paul Brilhante of Waiakea lost a third-set tiebreak to Iolani’s Gervase Ngo; top-seed Elise Wong of Punahou downed Kamehameha’s Denby Nagata 6-2, 6-0; and in girls doubles, the top-seeded tandem of Julia Visaya and Karli Vo of Iolani School defeated Waiakea’s Kiora Kunimoto and Chloe Takahashi 6-1, 6-0.

Visaya and Vo along with Mid-Pacific’s Kylie Canubida are all that is standing in the way of a Punahou sweep.

Canubida, the second seed, takes on Wong in the final, while Visaya and Vo get Punahou’s Jariahlyn Rhoades and Sophia Woofter, who upset a pair of higher-seeded teammates in the semis.

Ramos gets top-seeded teammate Payton Jim On in the boys final, while Okada and Ige get teammates Alex Kinoshita and Aidan Baracao, who also upset a pair of higher-seeded teammates in the semis.