In fact, the biggest pressure on the Punahou players during the tournament was living up their school's storied tennis tradition that now includes 17 consecutive boys' team titles and five consecutive girls' team titles.

Boys' captain and No. 1 seed Skyler Tateishi defeated freshman Matt Westmoreland of Island Pacific Academy, 6-2, 6-2, on a newly resurfaced court at the Wailea Tennis Club. Tateishi, a senior bound for the University of Washington, said he knew the court would play slower, "so I wanted to take something off my serve and not hit it flat. I put spin on it to make him hit a lot of first serves back so he couldn't capitalize on second serves."

Westmoreland, the No. 7 seed, had worked his way up to the finals with scrappy victories over No. 2 seed Reid Kiyabu of Punahou and No. 3 seed Nathan Nakatsuka of Kamehameha Schools, but his surprise run came to an end against the more powerful Tateishi.

"He's just too tough. ... He just killed me," Westmoreland said.

Punahou sophomore Kristin Lim was even more dominant, dropping a total of only eight games over five matches. Using aggressive baseline play, she easily defeated fifth-seeded Sara Yoshinaga of 'Iolani, 6-1, 6-2, for the girls' crown. Lim joins older brothers Robbie (2003 and 2004) and Mikey (2005 and 2006) as state singles champs from Punahou.

"She was very tough throughout the tournament. I'm not sure she was challenged very much," said Yoshinaga, a senior who will attend the University of Redlands in the fall.

Lim was part of the Punahou tandem that took the doubles title in 2006, and her partner from last year, Ashley Ohira, repeated this year, playing with partner Nicole Nakaoka. The Punahou duo, both juniors, beat unseeded Alyssa Shimizu and Erin Yamamoto from Mililani in the finals, 6-0, 6-3.

As if to underscore the strength and depth of Punahou's tennis program, the most competitive finals of the day involved the school's top boys pairs, No. 1-seeded Alex Ching and Erik Shoji and No. 2-seeded Hiroshi Hikida and Brad Takei. The two teams squared off in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu finals last month, with Ching-Shoji finishing on top, 6-4, 6-4.