LA'IE — He muttered, ranted and slammed down tennis balls.

Then, McKinley senior Matthew Tavares refocused his energy to outlast Pearl City's Larson Oliva in a nearly three-hour tennis match to win the boys singles title at the O'ahu Interscholastic Association Individual Championships yesterday at the Brigham Young-Hawai'i tennis courts.

Tavares defeated Oliva, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7-1), for his second OIA title. Mililani's Megan Yoshimoto beat Pearl City's Tezra Damaso for the girls' crown.

It was the closest match Tavares played throughout the OIA Tournament, which held its quarterfinal and semifinal rounds Saturday. He dropped only a game apiece in each of the earlier rounds.

"I think I'm very lucky I won, with all the match points I had," said Tavares, who also won as a sophomore. "I'm lucky he made some errors in crucial points."

Oliva also had some physical problems. During the tiebreaker, with Tavares already up 5-1, Oliva cramped up and could barely move without wincing in pain.

"He did great," Tavares said. "He's a tough player; his mental game is tough."

Oliva needed the mental toughness during his match. Tavares easily won the first set, then jumped to early leads of 4-2 in the second set and 5-0 in the third.

"I think I was focusing too much on winning and I let him back in," Tavares said. "I just thought, 'This is the last time you're going to do this, so you'd better move your butt.' "

And he did, chasing down almost all of Oliva's shots.

"I'm more of a defensive player. I don't have strong groundstrokes so I have to depend on my volleys," Tavares said. "I have to run more than most people."

On an adjacent court, Oliva's Pearl City teammates Jordan Lum and Taylor Pacarro beat Leilehua's Hector Alcayde and Cainan Shinjo, 6-2, 6-1, for the boys' doubles title.

Lum, a sophomore, teamed with another player to win the doubles title last year, but it was the first title for Pacarro, a senior, who admittedly had trouble meshing with Lum earlier in the season.

"We got a little frustrated and lost a few games" earlier in the season, said Pacarro, who played singles last year. But improvement in teamwork and focus led them to drop only one set all season, including the postseason.

On the girls' side, Yoshimoto repeated as singles champ and Adrienne Hamada and Alyssa Shimizu captured the doubles title to continue the Trojans' success from last week when they won the OIA team title.

Yoshimoto, a senior, defeated Damaso, 6-1, 7-6 (7-2) in a rematch of last year's championship match that Yoshimoto also won.

"We know each other's game pretty well," said Yoshimoto, who estimated she played Damaso about "10 or 11 times" throughout their prep careers.

"This one feels better because it's my senior year and it's good to end it like this. I went in with some confidence knowing I could win because I did it before," Yoshimoto said. "I made sure I was hitting my shots and ran down everything; I didn't give up on anything."

Hamada and Shimizu won their title without even playing their match yesterday. About 20 minutes prior to the match, teammate and opponent Rachel Mizuno was injured during team warmups. Mizuno was paired with Melissa Monette.

"(Mizuno) was trying to avoid her partner and she just fell," said Hamada, a sophomore. "It felt pretty good we won, but I felt bad for the other team. It was kind of weird. Both teams wanted to play, but if you're hurt, you're hurt, and there's nothing you can do about it."

Shimizu said Hamada "is a good partner to work with. She's held up a lot during games."

Hamada said of Shimizu: "She's quiet, but she helps me when I'm down, and we complement each other."

The singles and doubles wins by the girls was indicative of the Trojans' undefeated season.

"We did good this year," said Shimizu, a senior.