Warriors rebound
Golden State tops Clippers
LAHAINA — It was 2-2 between the Kamehameha Schools Maui and Maui High girls tennis teams before the Warriors’ Kaitlyn Ralar stepped on the court at Royal Lahaina Tennis Ranch.
Ralar came through for her squad, capturing the decisive point as the Warriors edged the Sabers 3-2 in their Maui
Interscholastic
League team championship semifinal
Thursday afternoon.
Kamehameha, the No. 2 seed from the
East Division, will face off against East No. 1 Seabury Hall for the MIL girls team title on Saturday in Lahaina. The Spartan girls earned their spot in the final with a 4-1 win over West No. 2 Lahainaluna.
“I definitely felt (the pressure) a little towards the end, but it was good,” Ralar said after her 6-3, 6-2 win over Hie Luna-Beamer of Maui High at No. 1 singles. “I’m excited. I was really hoping we would pull through today so that we could play on Saturday.”
Ralar was laser-focused going into the second set — so much so that she did not notice the crowd gathering to watch her match, which happened to be the last of semifinals day.
“She’s able to troubleshoot as the match is building and all good players do that,” Kamehameha Maui coach Kathy Kanemitsu said. “I think she went in with an initial plan and realized she had to adjust it. … She is a firecracker.”
With a little bit of wind picking up towards the end of the second set, Ralar powered through, something she envisions her team doing during the MIL championship.
“Hopefully, we can all come together as a team,” she said.
Kanemitsu added that even though her players are confident after their performances, they usually take each game one at a time.
“I will have to say, it was a close match,” she said. “As the sun goes down, we wash it out and we’re going in with nothing behind us. Whatever we’ve done today, it’s pretty much done. We have to go into the next one with a whole new mindset.”
The girls team finalists have played twice this season, with the Warriors taking the first meeting 3-2 and the Spartans winning the second 4-1.
In the boys team semifinals Thursday, Hobbes Wilstead jump-started Kihei Charter’s 4-1 victory over Maui Prep with his 6-0, 6-0 win over Na Pueo’s Makana Boote.
The Tiger Sharks, the No. 1 seed out of the East, let up one team point by defaulting their second doubles match. They will face a familiar opponent in the Spartans for the MIL title on Saturday — Kihei Charter beat Seabury twice in the regular season by scores of 3-2.
On Thursday, the Seabury Hall boys earned an unexpected 5-0 sweep of West No. 1 Lahainaluna in their semifinal, which was highlighted by Miles Stone’s 6-3, 6-1 win over the Lunas’ Shawn Abut at No. 1 singles.
“They’re first in the West, so I thought it was going to be harder, but the girls were pretty much harder than I thought,” said Spartans coach Jan Waechli. “But I’m happy with how they did. … They will fight hard.”
The results mean all four MIL team finalists will be from the East Division for the first time since the start of the team playoff era, according to Kihei Charter coach Ian Cohen.