Under a banner of the Matthew C. Perry High School mascot, Sasha Malone returns a forehand against E.J. King's Miu Best, last year's runner-up, to reach the girls Division II finals in the Far East tennis tournament. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan – For two athletes who call soccer their main sport, Ren Spinosi and Sasha Malone are proving pretty fair at wielding tennis rackets.
Spinosi, a junior, and Malone, a senior, on Wednesday locked up berths in the Far East Tennis Tournament Division II singles finals, each winning three matches, with Malone surprising last year’s Far East runner-up Miu Best of E.J. King in the semifinals.
“They are soccer players who let their rackets do the talking today,” longtime Samurai coach Mark Lange said. He recruited Malone and Spinosi from off the soccer pitch, where each has starred for the Samurai, to play for Perry’s tennis team.
And it’s paid big dividends. The boys and girls doubles have yet to begin – those start Thursday – but combined with Perry’s mixed doubles team of Airi Fujinuma and Elizabeth Shoop reaching the semifinals, the Samurai got a jump on the D-II team points chase.
“Both players were really locked in today and were very focused,” Lange said of Malone and Spinosi.
Junior Ren Spinosi is in his first year of playing tennis, and has gone all the way to the Far East Tournament boys Division II final. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Also scheduled Thursday are the mixed-doubles semifinals. The championship matches in each division are scheduled for Friday, with the winners of the Divisions I and II singles and doubles titles facing each other for overall Far East championships.
Defending girls champion Moa Best, Miu’s twin sister, reached the D-II final, where she will face Malone. Last year’s boys runner-up Elliott Lee of Humphreys reached the D-I final, and will face Nile C. Kinnick’s Jamesson de Borja.
Humphreys’ Chloe Lee and Lan Legros of Kubasaki secured girls D-I finals berths, while defending boys champion Ryunosuke Roesch of Yokota will take on Spinosi in the D-II final.
