Punahou’s Alyssia Fossorier used her power game to prevail over teammate and top seed Katreina Corpuz for the ILH Postseason Tennis Tournament championship Wednesday at Central Oahu Regional Park.
On the boys side, ‘Iolani’s Phuc Huynh captured a third straight ILH singles crown.
For Fossorier, the event’s second seed, the 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 victory was a major upset. Corpuz came in as the two-time defending champion who is also the reigning state champion. Interestingly, the two Buffanblu seniors teamed up for the league and state doubles titles when they were freshmen.
Corpuz, a Naval Academy commit, led 2-1 in the third set before Fossorier, who will play for UC Irvine, took control.
“We’ve always been competitive against each other and we have so much respect for each other,” Fossorier said after the win. “I know she was sick during the week, but we both gave it our all no matter the situation. Luckily I didn’t panic when I was down 1-2. It went through my head that, ‘It’s OK. Let’s play smart and play to your strengths.’ At 2-all, I started to feel the momentum.”
Despite the loss, Corpuz — who said she has been suffering from strep throat for two weeks — is intent on trying to get a second singles state title in May at CORP.
“It was disappointing,” Corpuz said about her game Wednesday. “I knew that every single move that I made wasn’t good enough. I know what I need to do. I just wasn’t doing it for some reason. I couldn’t do it because I’ve been really sick. Alyssia is a really talented player with a good work ethic and that really paid off for her. I didn’t have what I normally have. It’s not an excuse. She played really well.”
Huynh, the top boys seed, had some early trouble with third-seeded Andrew Yip of Kamehameha, but he cruised at the end in a 6-3, 6-0 triumph.
The scrappy Yip broke serve to stay in it at 4-3 in the first set, but didn’t win a game after that.
“In the beginning, it was neck and neck,” said Yip, who will play for University of Redlands. “A few errors cost me and that caused the first set to slip away and it started to go in his favor. He always got back, even when I pinned him down. He always got that extra ball and that’s what caused me to make errors.”
Aside from his ILH slam (three singles and one doubles title), Huynh also has one state singles crown and one state doubles championship to his credit. He’s on the prowl for another state singles victory after placing third a year ago.
“I really want this last one because I had a rough year last year,” he said.
In boys doubles, the top-seeded team of ‘Iolani’s Jordan Azuma and Joey Hu won a repeat ILH title with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Raiders teammates and third-seeded Robert Chang and Cody Ching.
“Things are clicking, but we still have stuff to work on and sharpen for states,” said Azuma, who won both the ILH and state doubles titles with Huynh in 2015 and with Hu last year. “Today, we held serve well, were really consistent, aggressive at net, and we returned well, too.”
Punahou freshmen Cosette Wu and Jackie O’Neill, the tournament’s fourth-seeded pair, topped Buffanblu teammates and sixth-seeded Lexie Matsunaga and Megan Flores 6-2, 6-0 for the league doubles crown.
“Some of the matches, I don’t know how we pulled through,” O’Neill said. “I’m proud of me and Cosette and what we were able to do and not let outside drama affect how we played.”
