The Moanalua tennis team is on Maui this week, trying to scoop up some awards at the HMSA State Tennis Championships. 

Doubles player Sophia Barbaria said the team has been preparing by doing “a lot of running.”  After doing well in the OIA playoffs several weeks ago, the team began “focusing on the specific things we needed to work on, and we’ve been doing more match play” than only drills, she explained.

The preparation is paying off for the boys singles player Joshua Dela Cruz. He made it out of preliminaries and through the first round by defeating players from Parker School and Waipahu. His 6-0, 6-1 win on Thursday puts him through to the next round. The boy’s doubles team of  Brandon Law and Kelsen Martinez defeated their opponents from Kalani 6-0, 6-0 and also move to play on Friday. 

The girls team had a tougher time, with the doubles team losing in the preliminary round. 

The team representing Moanalua in addition to Dela Cruz, Law, Chun, Martinez, and Barbaria are Austin Law, Matthew Oshiro, Kimberly Mikesell and Kami Kurizaki.