Humphreys’ Chloe Lee serves it up during the girls singles overall final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan – Blackhawks soared on Saturday’s final day of the Far East tennis tournament, capturing three of five overall event titles as well as Humphreys’ second straight Division I school banner.
Junior Chloe Lee won the overall girls singles title for the second year running and teamed with freshman Skylar Park to win the overall girls doubles. Junior Julian Cho and senior Rebecca Kruelski added the overall mixed doubles to the Blackhawks’ title ledger.
Meanwhile, Yokota junior Ryunosuke Roesch added to his growing list of accomplishments, winning the overall singles title for the third straight year and the doubles crown with his brother Kotaro, a sophomore.
And led by senior Jolie Nguyen and freshman Maya McElroy, Zama brought home its first overall Division II school banner since 2017.
Saturday’s play featured matchups between the D-I and D-II champs that were decided in the first three days of the championships.
Humphreys' Julian Cho hits a backhand in the mixed-doubles overall final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Perry's Ren Spinosi serves it up during the mixed-doubles overall final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Humphreys' Chloe Lee delivers a serve in the D-I girls singles final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Zama's Jolie Nguyen hits a forehand during the girls singles overall final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kinnick's Aaden Otteson lunges for a forehand return in the boys singles overall final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Yokota's Ryunosuke Roesch serves it up in the boys singles overall final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Lee and Park, the D-I girls doubles champs, did face a challenge in the second set of the overall final against McElroy and Nguyen. After comfortably winning the first set 4-2, the second went to a tiebreak with Lee and Park finally prevailing 14-12.
“They tried their best, they went for every single shot, their net play was good,” Lee said of her opponents.
“And they had good ground strokes, too,” Park added.
Facing and beating every D-II challenger helped prepare Nguyen and McElroy to face Lee and Park on Saturday, Nguyen said.
“It is a lot of mental pressure,” Nguyen said. “But we told ourselves that if we could beat everybody in D-II, then this was one step up in our journey.”
“I’m glad we went to a tiebreak,” McElroy added.
Nguyen, the D-II girls singles champion, again faced Lee, the two-tine D-I singles titlist for the overall crown. Then, Lee left little to chance, downing Nguyen 4-1, 4-0.
Kruelski and Cho also faced their share of drama in the mixed doubles overall final. There, they went up against host Matthew C. Perry seniors Ren Spinosi and Autumn Hendra, the D-II champs, who extended their D-I foes to a third-set tiebreak.
That seesawed until Kruelski and Cho gained an advantage and finally won, 4-1, 2-4, 10-8.
Kruelski credited Cho for keeping her on track. “Julian is a great partner; he made sure my head was level and that I knew what I’m fighting for, which was my last (Far East) match,” she said.
While Kruelski departs after this season, she feels the Blackhawks’ run of individual and team championships is likely to continue, with Lee, Cho, Park and junior Nathan Hwang slated to return.
“It’s really looking bright for next year,” Kruelski said. “They’re young, capable people. … The best is yet to come.”
The senior-laden Trojans won the D-II overall school banner for the first time since the 2017 Far East, which was shortened to two days due to an oncoming typhoon.
“We weren’t expecting this, but we were really going to try our hardest to win the championship,” said Nguyen, who paired with McElroy to win the D-II doubles, then beat her teammate for the D-II singles title.
The name Roesch has been synonymous with Yokota and championships since Ryunosuke earned his first Far East crown in 2023 when the tournament was held at his birthplace, Okinawa. He has since captured the D-II and overall titles in the two years the event’s been held at Iwakuni.
Nursing a sore upper right arm which has nagged him all season, Roesch shut out D-I singles champion Aaden Otteson of Nile C. Kinnick 6-0, and teamed with his brother to nab the overall doubles title against Cho and Hwang who extended them to a tiebreak before losing 2-4, 4-2, 7-3.
“I just try to not worry about the pain,” Ryunosuke Roesch said. “You just worry about what you can do and not use the pain as an excuse.”
For the Blackhawks, the season is not yet over. Humphreys and Daegu will converge on Osan on Halloween Day for the Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference season-ending tournament.
