Hashimoto beats teammate for title
Two years ago, then-Phoenix Mountain Pointe sophomores Kiyoko Hashimoto and Vaishnavi Koka won the state doubles championship.
Saturday at Glendale Independence High, the two were across the net from each other facing off for the Division I state singles championship.
Although the two traded shots and points at the beginning of the match, Hashimoto took control at 4-3 in the first game and never looked back, winning the singles title 11-3, 11-4.
When coach Larry Holmes talked to the two in between Games 1 and 2, Hashimoto expressed how tough it was playing her teammate.
“When coach talked to me he asked how are you doing, I said ‘It’s hard,’ ” Hashimoto said.
Said Holmes: “It was one of the most difficult things to do to watch the two of them go at it. We joked at the beginning of the year at how funny it would be if the two of them met in the state finals.”
It was the second time this season the two faced off. They met in the finals of the Chaparral Invitational, where Hashimoto also got the better of Koka, but it was a tighter match than Saturday’s final.
“I wish it was like the Chap- arral Invitational — I mean it was a good game; I gave it a fight,” Koka said. “I wished it wasn’t like this, but in the end it happens.”
Koka kept the first game close, tying the score at 3. But Hashimoto scored the next eight points to win Game 1 and scored the first seven points of Game 2 to firmly take control of the match.
But it was a tough semifinal for Hashimoto against Phoenix Xavier Prep’s Areta Buness (1312, 11-5) that helped Hashimoto in the final. Hashimoto was down 8-2 to Buness in the first game.
Koka had an easier road to the final, defeating Jenna Scheeland of Chandler 11-4, 11-2 to get to the final.
In the doubles final, topseeded Tiffany Periva and Drishti Panse of Chandler Hamilton defeated Kirielle Singarajah and Teal Weaver of Xavier 15-5, 15-4 to claim the school’s first doubles state title.
“We worked really hard for this title,” Panse said.
“We had a tough match the first game of the day, and it’s an experimental game for us,” Periva said about their quarterfinal match in the morning that was the toughest game of the tournament. “But we learned from that game and got us through the rest of the tournament.”