Sweet revenge for Coach Mac and the girls team as they
prevailed over King Kekaulike for the Girls Championship in a rematch of
finalists from last year, which was won by King Kekaulike.
The Lunas only loss came when No. 3 singles Miyana Wagner
badly injured her ankle in the second set, up 1 set to none and was forced to
retire.
With the championship sewn up, the girls and boys
gathered to watch the last match – No. 2 doubles with Jasmine Garde and Ezra
Baccar. The rest of the team decided not to tell TEAM BAGARDE that they had
already clinched, leading them to believe that the championship rested on their
match. Naturally, the match went to 3 tension and stress-filled sets. Ezra in
particular was feeling the pressure, calming her nerves and asthma issues before
every serve. In the end, they won and celebrated like crazy! Until they found
out the team had already won without them! The reaction was priceless!
Getting it together to pull out the win for the team was
reflective of the team philosophy throughout the year. Lacking the dominant
player like Kaila Nip from last year, they team had to rely on each other to
take care of business. This team truly pushed each other to higher levels of
achievement and competition, resulting in a dominating season as champs.
Well-deserved! This team brought back the title to Lahainaluna where it
belongs!
I hung around to shoot the team some more. The Maui News
reporter Lehia Apana was interviewing Mac and then Melissa Taketa. Meanwhile,
the team, both boys and girls, wanted to take a team photo. Alec and Miyana
were missing from it, because they left to get MIyana treatment for her ankle.
And Melissa was missing from the photo because she was getting interviewed.
I felt badly about Melissa not being in the team photo, especially since she was right there watching us as she’s getting interviewed, so I suggested they all get behind Melissa, as she’s getting interviewed, and take another group shot. That was fun! We even included the reporter, too! I really had fun shooting this team. They got along well together – boys and girls – and were really supportive of each other. This was true for the past teams I covered, but more so this year.
LAHAINALUNA 4, KING
KEKAULIKE 1
No. 1 singles-Melissa Taketa, Lahainaluna, def. Kaelyn
Okuhata 6-2, 6-2.
No. 2 singles-Paige Pasion, Lahainaluna, def. Michaela
Thompson 6-2, 6-2.
No. 3 singles-Makenna Anderson, King Kekaulike, def. Miyana
Wagner 1-6, 4-2, ret.
No. 1 doubles-Chantelle Baclay and Nicole Aceret,
Lahainaluna, def. Kisa Giebink and Riley Calvan 6-0, 6-1.
No. 2 doubles-Ezra Baccar and Jasmine Garde, Lahainaluna,
def. Tamra Takemoto and Kayla Uyesugi 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-4.
Next week is another long weekend:
Thursday-Friday-Saturday MIL Tennis tournament for individuals qualifying for
the HHSAA state tournament to be held on Oahu. Good luck to the individual
Lunas and hopefully I’ll be shooting some
on championship Saturday.
For Maui News article, click here.
For more photos, click here.
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