Punahou rolls on opening day

Punahou isn’t about to let a little bit of bad weather halt its reign over high school tennis.

The Buffanblu kept their mental edge enough to shake off 2 hours of rain delays and went 17-4 on the first day of the Carlsmith Ball/HHSAA State Tennis Championships at Central Oahu Regional Park on Thursday.

The performance set Punahou up for its 10th straight year of sweeping boys and girls state titles. Punahou’s girls have won for the past nine years, while the boys have won 21 straight.

"Tomorrow is going to be a key day," Punahou coach Rusty Komori said. "We never take anything for granted; there is a lot of competition out here from the other leagues and other schools. If we keep playing to our potential and keep our mental side right, we will be fine."

The Buffanblu have three of the four No. 1 seeds in the tournament, and all of them cruised into the quarterfinals.

ILH champion Brandon Lee started strong with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Tyler Mikami of Pearl City in the opening round, but was pushed by Punahou teammate Ryan Adachi in his next match. Lee needed a tiebreaker to knock out Adachi 6-2, 7-6 (5). Two of Punahou’s four losses on the first day came to teammates.

"That’s how it always seems to go when it is Punahou vs. Punahou," Komori said. "It’s good, it helps make us the team we are."

There were no upsets in either boys or girls singles, with each of the top eight seeds advancing.

Top seed Sarah Dvorak of Waiakea dropped a game to Kelsey Ann Yamanaka of Punahou and swept Mari Onoye of Roosevelt 6-0, 6-0. She faces Daisy Green of Kealakehe today.

Defending state champion Alyssa Tobita of Mililani cruised into the round of 16 and faces Scout Shutter of Punahou at 8 a.m. today.

The only upsets of the day occurred in doubles, with both No. 8 seeds falling.

Pearl City’s Megan Pacarro and Cherise Tsuha battled to beat Tayler Duarte and Rachel Pascual of Baldwin 6-3, 4-6 (7) before losing to Mililani’s Kelsey Kennell and Lauren Jyo 6-0, 6-1 in the second round.

In boys doubles, Ethan Fukuda and Kitt Kaneko of Mid-Pacific beat Samuel Matsuura and Christopher Simons of Waiakea 3-6, 6-2 (5) to reach the quarters.

Punahou’s three teams in boys doubles all made the quarterfinals, led by top seeds Kawika Lam and Zander Kim.