Several players from Hampton Roads earned berths in the VHSL tennis singles finals, thanks to Friday morning triumphs at Huntington Park in Newport News.
Defending Class 4 champion Kayla Kennedy of Great Bridge and Class 5 Region B champion Tori Epps of Menchville, a pair of sophomores, rolled in girls semifinals. On the boys side, reigning Class 5 champ Harrison Lee of Princess Anne advanced and Class 4 Region A winner Rainer Christiansen, a Grafton junior, earned his first berth in the final.
All of them will play for championships at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Kennedy, a sophomore, outplayed the Salem Spartans’ Claire Rawlins 6-2, 6-0 to move into the title match against Northern Virginia standout sophomore Izzy Rotaru of Broad Run.
Epps breezed to a 6-1, 6-0 triumph against Douglas Freeman’s Paige Suter and will take on Ana Maria Rincon from Roanoke’s Patrick Henry High. Rincon shut out Region A champion Ashton Dillman of Princess Anne 6-0, 6-0.
Lee, a Princess Anne senior who soon will play for James Madison, won a 6-2, 6-3 baseline duel against Riverside’s Aarush Rajalana. Lee will take on his good buddy and occasional doubles partner in USTA events, Dylan Chou of Douglas Freeman.
Chou, the son of former Hampton Roads Academy standout and Wake Forest starter Jimmy Chou, defeated Menchville’s Matthew Onoff 6-0, 6-1.
Christiansen, a three-time region champ who had lost in the state semifinals the past two years, got over that hump with a 6-2, 6-1 victory against Gordon Fairborn of Western Albemarle.
In the final, Christiansen will take on the player who ousted him last season, Lightridge’s Sid Dabhade.
In Class 6 boys singles, second-time semifinalist Vincent Yi, an Ocean Lakes junior, lost 6-4, 6-3 to Rayan Elkhalifi, a left-hander from Northern Virginia’s Yorktown High.
The doubles championship matches in Classes 6, 5 and 4 are set for 1 p.m. Friday at Huntington Park.
Meanwhile, at Virginia Tech, the singles semifinals and doubles finals are underway in Classes 3, 2 and (for girls only) 1.