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Menchville’s Tori Epps and Matthew Onoff captured their first Class 5 Region B singles crowns, thanks to indoor victories Tuesday at An Achievable Dream Tennis Center in Newport News, and played their way into the state semifinals.
Epps showed why she was the girls’ top seed, rolling past Maury’s Kamila Bardoun 6-1, 6-0 for her fourth consecutive lopsided victory in the tournament. Onoff, the No. 2 seed, upended No. 1 Patrick Stiles of Maury 6-3, 7-5 for the boys title, avenging a 6-0, 6-0 defeat early in this tournament a year ago.
The Commodores recovered to win the doubles titles, though, for state semifinal spots. Bardoun and Sabine Krigsvold beat Epps and Erin Pridgen 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, and Stiles and John Felts downed Onoff and Owen Balingit 6-0, 6-2.
Class 4 Region A team semifinals
Both Jamestown teams clinched state quarterfinal berths via 5-0 region semifinal victories in McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center.
The Eagles’ boys ousted Deep Creek after the girls shut out Smithfield. Jamestown will have to wait until Thursday for the region finals because the other semifinals (Churchland’s boys at Grafton and Grafton’s girls at Great Bridge) were rained out. The Clippers’ boys match was rescheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday, and the girls semifinal was reset for 5:30.
Julia Clark, Lauren Elliott, Scarlett Gamez, Gladys Smith and Emily Dahl won singles matches for the Jamestown girls, and Keean Buirski, Ishan Parikh, Joseph Erfe, Jaysen Kang and Jack Gianoukes won among the boys.
Class 5 Region A team finals
Rain in Virginia Beach prompted the postponement of both team championship matches in Class 5 Region A, though all of the competing squads already have ensured appearances in the state quarterfinals.
Both region finals will be held on First Colonial’s courts, though the Patriots, unlike in most years, did not qualify. Cox’s boys will face top-seeded Hickory at 11 a.m., followed by Cox’s girls against Princess Anne at 1 p.m.
Class 3 Region A individuals
The singles and doubles finals were rained out Tuesday and rescheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday on James River Country Club’s indoor courts in Newport News.
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The boys singles title match will pit No. 1 seed Nicolas Crespo of Tabb against No. 2 Xavier Jones of Lafayette, with both looking for a first state semifinal appearance. Crespo and Matthew Wornom then will face Jones and Gabriel Rosen-Turits in the doubles final.
In the boys team tournament, the Tigers were first and the Rams second, ensuring state quarterfinal bids.
The concurrent girls final will pit Tabb teammates Valentina Crespo, Nicolas’ sister, against Malini Dharmi. Crespo and Dharmi then will play Allie Smith and Katie Ross of New Kent for the doubles championship.
In a departure from the norm, New Kent was first and Lakeland second in team competition and will play state quarterfinals.
Class 2
Bruton, which successfully repeated as the Region A champion, awaits a visit from Region B champion Clarke County on Friday for a state quarterfinal.
The Panthers were the state runners-up a year ago and returned plenty of talent from that team, including region singles champion Simpiwhe Matabini. He defeated three opponents in the recent singles tournament to move to the state semis, capped by a 10-5 pro-set victory over teammate Anson Li in the final.
Showcasing the Panthers’ depth, Matabini and Li played the region doubles tournament together but were runners-up to two other Panthers: Max de Winter and Nick Felsman, neither of whom was in the eight-player singles tournament.