StarBulletin.com

Top singles seeds Spiker, Tsukamoto advance in state tennis


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POSTED: Friday, May 07, 2010

Kalani's Jared Spiker and Matthew Westmoreland of Island Pacific remained on a collision course to meet in the final after the first day of the Carlsmith Ball/HHSAA State Tennis Championships on the Big Island.

The two top seeds have lost a combined five games over four matches. The biggest upset from day one came from Pearl City's Jordan Lum in the round of 16, who took down third-seeded Marco Kobayashi of 'Iolani in three sets. On the doubles side, top-seeded Paul Okuda and Travis Yoshimoto of Punahou easily dispatched their first two opponents to move into the quarterfinals.

'Iolani's Lance Kishi and Kyle Okamoto stunned second-seeded combo Marcel Chan and Roman Kop from Kamehameha in straight sets. The only other upset came from Kaiser's Eric Wolfe and Kaito Inakoshi as they took down No. 8 seed Ryan Bieker and BJ Kai of Kauai. 'Iolani and Punahou have four of the eight quarterfinal teams.

In girls singles, top seed Sayo Tsukamoto of Kealakehe had no problems with her first two opponents, losing just one set. Three of the top eight seeds were upset: No. 5 Kristen Nakamura (Aiea), No. 7 Kerrie-Ann Tobita (Baldwin) and No. 8 Adrienne Hamada (Mililani).

The top duo of Jennifer Laws and Ashley Nakaoka of Punahou rolled past their first two opponents to easily move into the quarterfinals. Two other Punahou doubles teams moved on into the round eight as unseeded Sarah Steele and Kelsey Yamanaka upset No. 7 Kelly Hamamura and Michele Saiki from Baldwin, while the No.4 seed Kaitlyn Yim and Dani Young moved on with two straight-set victories.

After day one, Punahou leads both the boys (six) and girls (six) team standings. 'Iolani is just two points behind on the boys side and are three back on the girls side. Punahou has won every boys title since 1990 and has been No. 1 on the girls side since 2003.