St. Francis' Gora three-peats
By Kyle Sakamoto
Advertiser Staff Writer
St. Francis' Kalei Gora captured the Interscholastic League of Honolulu tennis triple crown yesterday. Next year she'll take a shot at completing the grand slam.
Gora, a junior, beat Kamehameha senior Heidi Kaloi for the third consecutive year in the ILH final — 6-4, 6-4, at Central O'ahu Regional Park.
In the boys final, Mikey Lim routed Punahou teammate Skyler Tateishi, 6-3, 6-1.
Top-seeded Gora said the key to victory was "just to stay (in) the point and not to get mad."
Both sets ended in similar fashion. Gora broke Kaloi's serve to go up 5-3. Kaloi, the No. 2 seed, broke back in the next game, but was broken again by Gora.
"She always tries one thing against me — backhand — but at the end I knew what to do," Gora said. "It came down to the crucial points that I had to win. I wanted to win it badly."
Gora had lost only one game in her previous three tournament matches.
"She has a pretty good serve, she hits it hard and it's very hard to see," said Kaloi, who will play at UC Irvine next season. "And she hits the ball very deep; she has good depth."
The top-seeded Lim, a junior, never let Tateishi, a sophomore, into their match.
"I just tried to execute my game plan, which is to grind it out from the baseline and wait for the short ball," Lim said.
In the semifinals on Tuesday, third-seeded Tateishi finished off No. 2 seed Colin Fujishige of Word of Life in a three-set, three-hour marathon that ended around 7 p.m.
"The endurance, it kind of brought me down a little today," Tateishi said. "But it made me feel good because the win (Tuesday) was a long match. I worked hard and it made me feel good and I was pumped for this match. But Mikey was just too good."
In the boys and girls doubles finals, the top-seeded teams beat the second-seeded teams.
Punahou junior Jon Wong and senior Eric Shono beat Kamehameha's Sean Tomas and Bryce Silva, 6-4, 6-4, in the boys final.
"We tend to get a little mad at each other a couple of times, but when it's crunch time we come together," Shono said.
Added Wong: "We've been like brothers. I know where he's going and he knows where I'm going."
Kamehameha sophomore Brooke Doane and senior Lauren Shin beat Punahou's Erin Katayama and Sherilyn Wee, 6-2, 6-4, for the girls title.
It was Shin's third consecutive appearance in the doubles final and second championship.
She and Doane lost last year to a Punahou team. In 2003, Shin and former teammate Kimi Kaloi won the title.
"Sophomore year I won and it was pretty good and I played with (Doane) last year and we lost," Shin said. "But this year we worked really hard."
Added Doane: "It's really good to redeem ourselves in the championship."
Reach Kyle Sakamoto at ksakamoto@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8041.
