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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Oliva, Woods win out West

By Stanley Lee
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser
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WAIPI'O — After dropping the first set, Pearl City's Larson Oliva returned fueled up and energized.

The top-seeded Oliva consumed a PowerBar Gel and a banana after the first-set loss, then rallied to beat second-seeded Cainan Shinjo of Leilehua, 4-6, 6-1, 6-0, to win his second straight boys singles title in the O'ahu Interscholastic Association West Post-Season Classic yesterday at Patsy T. Mink Central O'ahu Regional Park.

"I was more pumped up," said Oliva, who placed second at last year's OIA championships and third at states. "It gave me more motivation, it woke me up."

Top-seeded Demetria Woods of Radford beat fourth-seeded Kristen Nakamura of 'Aiea, 6-2, 7-5, for the girls singles title.

Mililani swept the boys and girls doubles titles over familiar competition under sunny conditions.

The top-seeded girls duo of Adrienne Hamada and Kim Takara defeated teammates and second seeds Melissa Monette and Kaylee Yamamoto, 6-1, 6-3.

"It was hard because we had to play our own teammates," said Hamada, who won last year's OIA West title with Alyssa Shimizu. "You practice with each other. You know their game, know what they can do."

The second set was close early on before Hamada and Takara pulled away.

"They were playing better in the second set," Hamada said. "We started hitting the net more and they started to hit better."

In boys doubles, fourth-seeded Remii Tanaka and Jireh Lin of Mililani defeated friends and third seeds Eric Baba and Steven Ho of Pearl City, 6-2, 6-1.

"It makes it easier since we know their game," Lin said.

Added Tanaka: "We already knew what to do beforehand."

Tanaka and Lin advanced to the finals by upsetting the top-seeded team in Monday's semifinals.

Meanwhile, top-seeded Janelle Ng of Moanalua defended her girls singles title at the OIA East Post-Season Classic at Brigham Young-Hawai'i by beating No. 6 Rachel Sugiyama of Kalani, 6-0, 6-1. Ng beat teammate Camille Argamosa, 6-2, 6-1, earlier in the day.

"After I played (Argamosa) in the semis, I really, really wanted it," said Ng, a junior. "I was focusing so much because I really wanted to take it again.

"I didn't want to play her in the semis. I wanted to meet her in the end. It was pretty tough and our rallies were pretty long."

Only the girls singles final finished before rain postponed the third-place and championship matches. The boys singles final resumed at McKinley, and No. 1 Jared Spiker of Kalani beat No. 2 Quoc Huynh of McKinley, 6-0, 6-2. Other matches resumed later in the afternoon at CORP, while some will be held this afternoon at Kaiser.

One of the matches that will resume at Kaiser is the girls doubles final between No. 1 Mairi Koike and Nicole Paiva of Kalani and No. 3 Leah Yamamoto and Erin Hashimoto of Roosevelt. Yamamoto and Hashimoto lead 3-2 in the third and final set.

The boys doubles final between No. 1 Nicholas Lee and Cody Lau of Kalani and No. 2 Ken Covey and Rei Yoshimine of Kaiser will start today at Kaiser.

The top four singles and doubles finishers from the East and West qualify for Saturday's OIA championships at CORP.

The Pearl City boys and Mililani girls won the OIA team titles on April 11.

Reach Stanley Lee at sktlee@honoluluadvertiser.com.