WAIPAHU — Leilehua's winning girls duo reversed its recent play. And Kalani's winning boys duo made it just in time.

Leilehua seniors Jenna Yoneshige and Beverly Cortez won the girls title and Kalani juniors Cody Lau and Nicholas Lee won the boys title at yesterday morning's O'ahu Interscholastic Association soft tennis doubles championships at Waipahu High School.

Both winning teams advanced through the morning's quarterfinal and semifinal rounds before winning their championship matches with 5-0 scores.

"We tried to start strong and made sure we kept strong," Yoneshige said.

The OIA is the only league in the state and nation to sponsor soft tennis, a Japanese variation of tennis. The sport follows the same rules as tennis, but the racquet is longer and narrower and the ball is rubbery and squishy. It's played in a doubles format and each match is played to one set.

Yoneshige and Cortez, the West's second seed, reversed their recent trouble of closing out matches. They led in their match at the OIA team championships before losing, and also lost their lead in last week's OIA West championship against Waipahu's Rowena Salanga and Clarisen Tuliao.

The two bounced back in yesterday's final against Salanga and Tuliao, the West No. 1 seed. With Cortez playing the backline with her powerful strokes and Yoneshige playing aggressively at the net, Leilehua surged to a 4-0 lead.

In the fifth game, Salanga and Tuliao rallied and led, but Yoneshige hit two shots at the net to win the match.

"I wasn't really nervous, just trying to get point by point, that's what our coaches always say," Cortez said.

Kalani's Lau and Lee almost didn't make it onto the court yesterday because Lau had a previous commitment. Tennis won out, and so did the two, who defeated the West No. 4 duo of Steven Ho and Ryan Takamori, 5-0.

"I didn't want to let the team down and my school," Lau said.

Instead of having a player on the backline and another at the net like most teams, Lau and Lee style their play from their tennis backgrounds with both players near the net. That helped close the gaps on the court, and their strong volleys proved tough to return. The chemistry from playing together since they were freshmen also helped.

"This is the farthest we ever got," Lee said. "It was exciting."

Kaiser won the OIA boys team title and Roosevelt won the girls team title on Sept. 12. It's Roosevelt's fourth straight title and Kaiser's second in the last three years.