LAHAINA — Under a hot West Maui sun, two sophomores rose above the rest of the best tennis players in the Maui Interscholastic League to become champions.

Kihei Charter’s Indi Petrone and Maui High School’s Sophia Kato beat the heat and the competition and took home golds Saturday afternoon from the MIL tennis championships at the Lahaina Civic Center courts.

“Good, it was a lot of fun and I’m just glad I was able to play,” Petrone said after defeating Seabury Hall’s Manoli Placourakis 6-3, 6-0 in the boys singles final.

Petrone, who was part of the boys doubles runner-up team last year, said playing singles has been “a lot different without the partner, so I had to work on a lot of my mental game before I got here, but I like it more than playing doubles, so it was good.”

Petrone has been getting tips and support from Hobbes Wilstead, a two-time MIL champion and state runner-up for Kihei Charter who has been assistant coaching the Tiger Sharks this past month.

Some of the main words of advice “were not to hit too hard, just focus on controlling the ball, moving into the net, which I didn’t do very well at — that was definitely a big pointer — and first serve percentage is a big one,” Petrone said.

Thankfully, Saturday was not as hot as Friday’s semifinal rounds, but the demand for extra water and sunscreen from players and coaches persisted through the afternoon.

The shy and humble Kato wiped sweat from her brow after winning the girls singles championship match 6-0, 6-0 against Lia Reisenauer of Seabury.

“Good, hot, but good,” Kato said with a smile on her face.

This title was a goal of hers since the beginning of the season. She said she’s been practicing “getting my serve in and hitting my groundstrokes, that’s it.”

Coming off last weekend’s celebration of an MIL girls team title also gave Kato a little inspiration for the individual tournament.

“It was so amazing, especially because there were quite a lot of seniors, so it was nice because it’s their last year to win their second time in a row,” she said before heading off to watch and support the remaining Maui High players competing on finals day.

Seabury’s Marissa Tasaki finished third in girls singles with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Sundi King of Kihei Charter. The Spartans’ Brandon Yu won a battle for bronze against the Tiger Sharks’ Lucas Vannatta 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

The MIL girls doubles final was a friendly competition as the all-Sabers matchup featured the No. 1-seeded team of Jordyn Luna and Fakanaua Tongi taking on teammates Taliah Cabatu and Makena Kennedy. Luna and Tongi won 6-2, 6-4.

“It was so much fun,” Luna said. “Almost no pressure, you can just play loose and joke around, it’s just like practice.”

Luna was part of the winning girls doubles team last year, noting that “it was really special” to repeat the victory for her senior season. And, either way, Maui High would have continued its reign of the girls doubles titles.

“I think it just showed how much I learned over the season and playing with Jordyn and just with my team, all the things that I learned just practicing with them and getting in reps, late practices,” Tongi said of the win. “It was good, it was worth it.”

Lahainaluna’s Aumnart Akamai Lapus and Noah Mueller notched a victory in the boys doubles final on Saturday after one of their opponents suffered a leg injury going into the third set. The Lunas lost the first set 3-6 and took the second set 6-2 before the Spartans’ Max Huston and Ashton Garzon retired in the third at 1-0.

Mueller said “it was unlucky for them,” but was still proud of how he and his teammate performed throughout the tournament, especially with having only been doubles partners for the first time that weekend. It was also Mueller’s first-ever tennis season.

“But, we still managed to pull off a good rally in the first and second set, and we managed to pull off a comeback in the second set,” Lapus added. “It feels really good to pull off the win, you know. After COVID, Lahainaluna tennis has kind of been a small team, but we had some really good plays and some really good players, too. It’s really exciting to win one tournament for Lahainaluna.”

The top seven boys and girls singles players and doubles teams from the MIL tournament advanced to compete at the HMSA/HHSAA state championships at Central Oahu Regional Park beginning Thursday.

“States is definitely tough and I learned a lot from last year, so I definitely, especially since it’s my last year, I want to have fun and just try our hardest,” Luna said. “Whatever happens, happens.”

While Kato said she is hopeful of making it through a couple rounds, Petrone said he’s just excited to compete in the tournament.

“I just want to play,” he said. “I just want to see what they got over there and just do my best.”

* Dakota Grossman is at dgrossman@mauinews.com.