Death, taxes and Punahou tennis. It’s been a given at the state high school championships for decades.
It was no different on Saturday at the Fairmont Orchid Hawaii Tennis Center & Mauna Lani Bay Hotel Fitness Club on Hawaii Island.
Despite not winning any individual titles, the Buffanblu boys earned their 26th consecutive team championship — 48th overall — and the Buffanblu girls their 14th straight — 42nd overall — at the Carlsmith Ball/HHSAA State Tennis Championships.
The Punahou boys used a second-place finish in doubles and third-place effort in singles for 15 points, edging out Mid-Pacific (14) and ‘Iolani (13) to claim the banner, while the Punahou girls used depth and a runner-up finish in singles for 19 points, nine points ahead of ‘Iolani.
St. Francis junior Taylor Lau bookended her three consecutive singles final appearances with a second crown, defeating Punahou’s Alyssia Fossorier, 6-1, 6-4. The third-seeded Lau won as a freshman but finished second last season.
Kamehameha-Maui seniors Sarah Ikioka and Kylee Kato saved their best for their fourth appearance in the doubles final. The top-seeded duo gave the Maui Interscholastic League its first girls doubles title since 1998 by defeating Konawaena’s Rashai Kailiwai and Tayvia Yamagata, 6-2, 6-2.
Ikioka-Kato were fourth as freshmen, third as sophomores and second as juniors.
Phuc Huynh ended a 30-year drought for ‘Iolani in boys singles, giving the Raiders their first title since Lance Au in 1986. Huynh, the Interscholastic League of Honolulu champion, defeated fellow sophomore Andre Ilagan of Farrington, 6-4, 6-4.
Mid-Pacific claimed its first boys title of any kind in doubles when fourth-seeded Reyn Miyazawa and Seann Esaki upset top-seeded Austin Hamamoto and Hia Lam of Punahou, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1. It was the sixth consecutive boys doubles championship for the ILH and 12th in the past 13 years.
