The Nease girls tennis team brought home a Class 3A state championship decades in the making on Tuesday afternoon in Altamonte Springs.
Led by spectacular No. 1 player Kylie Kochis, a three-time All-News4JAX selection and the top player in 2023, the Panthers won the second team state title in school history with a 5-1 victory over Jensen Beach.
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It marks the first team crown for the Panthers since winning the 5A championship in 1997. The Panthers also finished state runner-up the following year. It’s team state championship No. 6 for head coach Michael Kypriss, who won five girls titles while leading Miami Killian, and has six state runner-up finishes in his hall of fame career between Killian and Dr. Krop.
Kochis still has one big hurdle left. On Wednesday morning, she’ll face off against Tallahassee Leon’s Abra Boonswang in the overall singles championship. Boonswang, seeded No. 2 in the singles bracket, beat Yarlin Mendoza 6-1, 6-0 to earn a spot in the overall singles championship.
Only Sierra Poske has won an overall singles titles from Nease. Creekside’s Imani Graham, who won the 3A title in 2019, was the last local girls player to bring home a championship.
The Panthers romped through the quarterfinals and semis with 4-0 routs over East Lake and Niceville and had just about as easy of a time with Jensen Beach.
Kochis and Olivia Jepsen won in singles against East Lake. Kochis and doubles partner Nadia Filer and Jepsen and playing partner Blair Murray racked up doubles wins. Those two doubles teams won again in the semis, with both Kochis and Filer winning in singles against Niceville to send Nease into the team championship.
