All BIIF Tennis Selections announced

WHS frosh, Sarah Dvorak

All-BIIF tennis

GIRLS SINGLES     First team

Sarah Dvorak Fr. Waiakea, Chelsea Sato Sr. Waiakea, Daisy Green Jr. Kealakehe

Erin Wakefield-McDonald Sr. Hawaii Prep

Second team

Emilie Skladzien So. Parker, Kristin Winther Sr. Kealakehe

Amanda Lerma Jr. Kamehameha, Kelly Soares Fr. Hilo

GIRLS DOUBLES     First team

Stephanie Matsuura/Ceara Sumida Jr./Sr. Waiakea

Genevieve Flaspohler/Grace Riley Jr./Sr. Hilo

Qiana Hironaka/Shayla Kushi Sr./Jr. Waiakea

Tiera Makaiwi/Michelle Reed So./Fr. Kealakehe

Second team  Ashley Teshima/Carli Yamamoto Jr./Sr. Konawaena

Leisha Ishikawa/Karyl-Lyn Yamakawa So./Fr. Waiakea

Eun Sol Lee/Claire Rho Sr./Jr. Hawaii Prep

Cierra Abellera/Mai Kobayashi So./Fr. Kealakehe

BOYS SINGLES     First team

Spencer Travalino Jr. Kealakehe, Kaito Mizutani Sr. Waiakea, Daniel Tada So. Hilo

Isaiah Brilhante So. Waiakea

Second team

Zane Moran Sr. Hawaii Prep, Austin Gunnar Lee Jr. St. Joseph

Alden Aguirre Jr. Honokaa, Michael Monahan Sr. HPA

BOYS DOUBLES       First team

Chandler Daub/Jeffrey Gelman Jr./Jr. Kealakehe

Chris Lysiuk/Shoyo Tsukamoto Sr./Jr. Kealakehe

Santa Chirathivat/Bobby Souza Jr./Jr. HPA

Hiroki Kawakami/Won Joon Kim So./Sr. HPA

Second team    Paul Gagorik/Dillon Kell So./Sr. Hilo

Garry Murayama/Caden Yamamoto Sr./Sr. Waiakea

Andrew Trump/James Werner Jr./Sr. Kohala

Shaun Kagawa/Keoni Wong So./Jr. Kamehameha

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Mizutani, Mizuguchi pull big surprise – BIIF Tennis Championships

BIIF defending doubles champions Kealkehe's Jeffrey Gelman and CJ Daub

Mizutani

BIIF TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS BEGIN TODAY

   Waiakea’s top singles players, Kaito Mizutani and Kallen Mizuguchi, have opted to forego playing in the Big Island Interscholastic Federation individual championships and instead have teamed up to play doubles.

   Mizutani and Mizuguchi would have been given the top two individual seeds going into the BIIF championships, but the two good friends decided to team their talents and go for the doubles crown.

   The door is now open for one of several individuals to lay claim to the BIIF crown.  St. Joseph’s Hunter Lee, Kealakehe’s Spencer Travalino, Hawaii Prep’s Jake Moran and Hilo’s Daniel Tada all have a shot at winning the individual title.

Mizuguchi

For the ladies it should be all Sayo.  Kealakehe’s Sayo Tsukamoto will be shooting for her fourth consecutive BIIF individual crown and should be one of the top three players in the state.

The only question for the girl’s singles crown is who will come in second?

   Defending boys doubles champions CJ Daub and Jeffrey Gelman have been given the number 2 seed behind Mizuguchi and Mizutani.

   Defending girls doubles champions Crystal Makaiwi and Sabryna Yates of Kealakehe should have strong competition from Waiakea’s Chelsea Sato and Samantha Maesato.

   The BIIF championship starts today at Holua Tennis Center and concludes on Saturday.

Kealakehe’s Doubles Switch Pays Dividends in BIIF Tennis

Kealakehe's Jeff Gelman and CJ Daub - #1 BIIF doubles team

   Considered to be one of the biggest tennis matches in the Big Island Interscholastic Federation regular season Waiakea and Kealakehe, two undefeated teams, went head to head on Saturday.

   The ‘Riders traveled to Waiakea in a showdown to determine who would be the top dog in BIIF team tennis as the two teams waited from the sidelines for two hours while rain delayed play.

   Both matches were decided by each schools number 3 doubles teams with Waiakea winning the girls, 3-2, and Kealakehe taking the boys by the same score.

   “I think, for us, this is one of the most important games of the season,” Waiakea boys coach Bill Brilhante, Jr. said prior to the match.  “I decided to play a straight up line up and fell victim to a lineup switch by Kealakehe.”

    With Waiakea having two of the top individual players in the BIIF and Kealakehe returning the league’s best doubles champions in Chandler “CJ” Daub and Jeffrey Gelman the showdown rested with the lineup changes produced by ‘Rider coach Jerome Kanuha. 

  “I knew they had better singles players than us,” Kanuha said.  “I decided to take my top singles player and put him into the doubles lineup.”

   The strategy paid off for the crafty Kanuha as Waiakea swept the two singles matches and Kealakehe won the three doubles matches to walk away with the 3-2 team victory over the Warriors.

  The Waiakea boys showcased two of their best individual players in Kaito Mizutani and Kallen Mizuguchi.

Mizuguchi

“Kaito (Mizutani) is ranked #2 in the state for boys 16 and Kallen (Mizuguchi) is ranked at #5 in the state for boys 18,” Coach Brilhante said.

  Mizuguchi made easy work out of ‘Rider Chase Richmond winning in straight sets of 6-1.

   “The only thing working today was my serve,” Mizuguchi said after the match.  “I was thrown off a little when he (Richmond) played at a different pace.  I was expecting something harder and faster and he kept changing the speed and that threw me off.”

   Mizuguchi played a solid all around game with a lightning fast serve and six aces to go with a consistent ground game.

   “My backhand is the most improved part of my game from last year,” Mizuguchi said.  “I think I got everything going in my game, but I still need to work on the mental aspects.  I took a long break by spending two weeks in Japan and it feels like I’m slowly coming back.”

Mizutani

The Warriors number two seed, Kaito Mizutani, won in straight sets 6-1, 6-0 over Aaron Hudman and also displayed a good all around game.

   “He’s (Hudman) pretty much the best I’ve played this season,” Mizutani said.  “I still need to keep working on the basics, my forehand and backhand, and I need to be more patient and not go after every shot.”

   Meanwhile defending BIIF doubles champions, CJ Daub and Jeffrey Gelman, was showing why they have yet to lose a regular season match in league play as they won 6-4, 6-1 over Warriors Chad Hara and Isaiah Brilhante.

   “We’ve been playing together for five years and we get along well and have a good friendship,” Gelman said.

   The duo won the doubles championships last year as freshman and look to continue their domination.

   “We’ve known each other since preschool and we like playing together,” Daub said.

   Kealakehe’s #2 doubles team of Shoyo Tsukamoto and Spencer Travalino defeated Garry Murayama and Caden Yamamoto 6-0, 6-1 and teammates Dillon Castillo and Chris Lysiuk beat Waiakea’s Chris Simons and Kris Shigehara 6-2, 7-5.

   For the girls it was Kealakehe’s three time BIIF individual champion, Sayo Tsukamoto, beating a talented Ceara Sumida by identical scores of 6-1.

Green

‘Rider teammate Daisy Green, playing in the #2 singles spot, defeated Warrior Leisha Ishikawa in straight sets of 6-0.

   Playing in the shadow of Tsukamoto, Green has quietly gone undefeated in BIIF regular season play last year as a freshman and continues her streak into her sophomore year.

   “I make less mistakes that the people I play and I just wait for them to make the errors,” Green said.  “I use top spin on my serves and my ground stokes have worked well for me.  I just need to be more aggressive and not sit back on the ball.”

  With the two individual matches going to the Kealakehe the defending girl’s team champions had to just sit back and wait for one of their doubles teams to come through with a win.

  Waiakea bounced back when their doubles teams swept Kealakehe to win the overall team scoring 3-2.

   For Warriors #1 doubles team of Samantha Maesato and Chelsea Sato is was a marathon afternoon that went the full three sets.  The Warriors beat the talented duo of Crystal Makaiwi and Kristen Winther 6-3, 2-6 and 7-5.

   In the #2 doubles match it was Warriors Kaede Kanzawa and Stephanie Matsuura beating out Tiera Makaiwi and Tammi Nedlic, 6-2, 6-4 to make things interesting.

   Like in the boys play everything came down to the #3 doubles team of Warriors Qiana Hironaka and Shala Kushi who made a comeback against Lauren Fujino and Maura Montenero.

   After losing the first set 6-3 the Warrior duo rallied to win the second set 7-5 and closed the team victory with a final 6-3 score.