DAYTONA BEACH — Giselle Adekunle has good awareness.
Certainly on the court where she helped the Spruce Creek Hawks to their fifth district championship in a row. But also when it comes to dodging celebratory ice baths.
While the Hawks soaked coach Jeremy Davies following their District 2-4A Tournament victory on April 14, Adekunle eluded their attempt to sneak up and douse her.
They’ll have more chances, though.
The Spruce Creek girls did not lose a match across two days at the Florida Tennis Center to clinch a regional semifinal home date with Oakleaf on April 21. Adekunle also wrapped up state tournament berths with titles in No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles with partner Khloe Akopian.
“Regionals is coming up,” Adekunle said. “It’ll be interesting. I feel like we should do pretty good. Just looking forward to states.”
Their boys enjoyed similar district success.
While they finished as district runners-up to Buchholz, they booked a trip to regionals (April 20 at Atlantic Coast). No. 1 singles player Raimey Miral captured an individual championship to put himself in the state tournament. He also qualified for the state doubles draw with partner Indigo Stout.
“At the end of the day, too, what I love to see is it’s six years in a row for the boys, five years in a row for the girls that we’re qualifying to go to state at some level,” Davies said. “Obviously, you always want the team first. But we do want to be able to play for that singles and doubles title.”
In addition to Adekunle’s No. 1 singles title and Akopian’s No. 2 singles crown, Sophia Calderwood prevailed at Line 3, Sage Day won at Line 4 and Keilana Irvin completed the sweep at Line 5.
Lineup regulars Kyla Milwee and Irina Tabacila won the No. 2 doubles championship but did not participate in the singles brackets, providing Calderwood, Day and Irvin the opportunity to move up a couple positions. Davies said Milwee and Tabacila will be back for regionals.
“Our six and seven girls were ready to go,” he said. “So we have a really deep roster, and I like that, regardless of what happens, we have a team to go out there and compete.”
In the girls standings, Flagler Palm Coast placed third, University took fifth and DeLand was seventh.
On the boys side, Miral and Stout accounted for Spruce Creek’s two titles. The Hawks also cracked the finals in No. 3 singles (Stout), No. 4 singles (Aiden Cappiello), No. 5 singles (Brayden Kim) and No. 2 doubles (Cappiello and Aarav Desai), giving them 15 points, one fewer than Buchholz.
Miral will be making his second state trip in doubles and first as a singles ace.
“I think the thing that really helped me a lot for my (final) singles match was my serve, because every time I would hit a slice or a kick, he couldn’t really deal with it,” he said. “I know that he barely plays with any lefties. So if I hit a different type of spin to him, like a lefty slice or a lefty kick, he’s going to have a hard time with it, and indeed he did.”
University tied for fourth, with DeLand fifth and FPC sixth.
District 6-3A
Make it four in a row for the Seabreeze boys.
The Sandcrabs emerged victorious again in the District 6-3A Tournament, holding off runner-up Edgewater on April 15 and 16 at Red Bug Lake Park. The win continued their triumphant campaign, which included a Five Star Conference title last month.
In the regional semifinals, Seabreeze will welcome Gainesville to town. It’s an identical matchup to the first round last year, when the Purple Hurricanes came away with a 4-1 win.
Winter Springs and Edgewater ranked first and second in the district girls standings.
District 4-3A
The Matanzas boys are also headed to regionals.
They racked up 12 points during the District 4-3A event, slotting between champion Ponte Vedra (14) and third-place Nease (11) on April 14 and 15 at the Southern Recreation Center.
The Pirates grabbed individual firsts at three lines. Daniel Patsula earned a state tournament spot with a No. 1 singles title. Stanislav Valenteychik won in a third-set tiebreaker in No. 3 singles. He and Adam Stochel Polubiec also teamed up for a title in No. 2 doubles.
Matanzas will travel to Fleming Island in Round 1 of regionals.
In the girls standings, the Pirates placed sixth. Nease won the district championship.
District 5-1A
As the lone Volusia-Flagler representative in District 5-1A, Father Lopez ranked sixth in the boys and girls standings.
Trinity Prep captured the boys trophy, while Geneva topped the girls standings on April 13 and 14.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: District tennis roundup: Spruce Creek, Matanzas, Seabreeze head to regionals
Reporting by Chris Vinel, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
