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Ryle first-year doubles team advances to semifinal round in girls state tennis tournament


By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter

The first Ryle doubles team to win a 9th Region championship has made it to the final four of the girls state tennis tournament.

Ryle doubles partners Halimae Laurino, left, and Elizabeth Hamilton. (Photo from Ryle Girls Tennis Twitter account)

Ryle juniors Elizabeth Hamilton and Halimae Laurino continued their successful post-season run with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over third-seeded Danni Poat and Shelby Puryear of McCracken County in the quarterfinals of the state tournament on Friday in Lexington.

Hamilton and Laurino will face their biggest test on Saturday morning when they take the court against top-seeded Amanda and Madison Miller of Lexington Catholic. The match is set for 9 a.m. at the University of Kentucky, but it could be moved indoors if there’s rain in the forecast. All of the girls matches on Friday were played at Top Seed Tennis Club in Lexington.

This is the first time the Ryle players have competed in the state doubles tournament. Last year, Hamilton was the 9th Region singles champion and Laurino was playing high school tennis in Wisconsin.

When Laurino transfered to Ryle, she expected to compete with Hamilton for the team’s No. 1 singles spot. They decided to play doubles instead and advanced to the state tournament after ending Notre Dame’s streak of 22 consecutive regional doubles titles.

Covington Latin singles player Toshi Watanabe (Photo by Bob Jackson)

Hamilton and Laurino have won all four of their state tournament matches in straight sets, including Friday’s upset against last year’s state runner-up team. Their semifinal opponents are also a first-year doubles team. Last season, Amanda Miller made it to the state quarterfinals in singles and Madison Miller made it to the state quarterfinals in doubles with a different partner.

The other 9th Region tennis champions who made it to the state quarterfinals on Friday lost to seeded opponents. In boys doubles, top-seeded Brandon and Michael Chou of Louisville Trinity defeated Benito and Cristiano Trojani of Covington Catholic, 6-3, 6-2. In boys singles, third-seeded Paul Reynolds of Louisville Manual knocked off  Toshi Watanabe of Covington Latin, 6-4, 6-3.

The local singles players eliminated in round of 16 matches on Saturday were Max Cook of CovCath, Anderson McDowell of Campbell County and Sarah Watanabe of CovLatin.

The doubles teams that lost in the round of 16 included Robert Spicker and Yamaan Ahmad of Villa Madonna, Luke McHale and Evan Gardner of CovCath, Isabelle Bailey and Lauren Fley of Notre Dame and Alyssa Igyarto and Amanda Shane of Ryle.


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