BIIF Tennis: Waiakea, HPA remain on top, Konawaena, Kealakehe girls move up

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Makua Lani’s John David Gallagher fires a return shot in his boys No. 1 singles match Saturday; Gallagher defeated Konawaena’s Tyler Acasio 6-0, 6-0. (Tom Linder/West Hawaii Today)
Konawaena’s Kira Edmondson earned a hard-fought win at No. 1 singles during Saturday’s Makua Lani-Konawaena tennis match at Kealakehe. (Tom Linder/West Hawaii Today)
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The BIIF tennis standings remained largely unchanged after another week of play on Big Island courts.

Waiakea remains atop the leaderboard in both the boys and girls tennis standings after both Warrior squads defeated St. Joseph Wednesday to up their record to 4-0 in BIIF play.

Keaau’s girls were removed from the ranks of the unbeaten, falling to Hilo on Friday in a 5-0 sweep. That leaves just Waiakea and Hawaii Prep as the two undefeated teams in both the boys and girls standings.

The Kealakehe and Konawaena girls each moved up; Kealakehe by virtue of a victory Thursday at Parker and Konawaena via a win Saturday against Makua Lani.

The match of the day at Saturday’s Makua Lani-Konawaena contest came at the girls’ No. 1 singles, which pitted Konawaena’s Kira Edmondson against Makua Lani’s Aliya Richert. A back-and-forth contest ultimately went to a third-set tiebreaker, with Edmondson coming out on top 3-6, 6-4, 10-4.

“(Richert) is young and still learning; she’s been playing a month and a half,” said Roy Gillespie, head coach of Makua Lani, who hosted the meet at Kealakehe’s courts. “(Edmondson) was much more experienced and had much better mechanics, but she competed, which I was proud to see.”

Hawaii Prep and Waiakea are set to meet on Saturday, April 2 in a contest that will put the winner in the driver’s seat for a BIIF Championship.