The Mililani boys tennis team has another phenom on its hands.

Freshman Sage Leaman beat Waipahu’s Jonah Tahilan 6-4, 7-6 (5) to win the OIA individual championship on Saturday at Radford.

Trojans junior Alyssa Tobita later earned her third straight OIA crown with a 6-0, 6-1 sweep of Frances Goldsmith of Kalani.

"Sage is just a great player being a freshman," Mililani coach Jason Agsalda said. "He’s relentless, he kind of reminds me of Tobita; they just have great fight and they try real hard."

Both Leaman and Tahilan went through the bracket unchallenged until they met for the championship. Leaman beat Max Wu of Castle 6-0, 6-0 in the first round, teammate Mikah Sato 6-1, 1-0 (retired) in the second and Brandon Bersola of Leilehua 6-2, 6-1 in the third. Tahilan swept each of his first two opponents 6-0, 6-0 before beating Tyler Mikami of Pearl City 6-2, 6-2 in Friday’s semifinals.

Leaman knew he wouldn’t have an easy time in the final. He beat Tahilan twice previously this season, but the last time was a tight battle and he expected the same on Saturday.

The freshman surprised himself, running out to a 3-0 lead in the first set before Tahilan rallied. Tahilan had a big advantage in power, but Leaman countered it with a series of lobs and reaped the benefits when Tahilan would blast one into the net or occasionally over the fence on the side of the court. But no two lobs were the same.

"Those kinds of players, when they get the same kind of ball they really hit hard and stuff," Leaman said. "So I had to mix up the height so it is never exactly where they want it."

Tahilan found his shot to begin the second set, going up 2-0 and forcing Leaman to play from behind. The Marauder enjoyed a lot more support from the fans, and Leaman couldn’t help but notice. After Leaman rallied to tie it at 5-5, he looked to Tahilan’s supporters and shouted "Let’s go!" and used that momentum to put Tahilan in a 6-5 hole.

"It’s good to cheer for someone," Leaman said. "It just kind of motivates me to try to make them be quiet. I don’t want them to have anything to cheer for."

Tahilan thought he won the next game, but Leaman told him he hit out on an earlier point and that the score was 40-15. The players discussed it for a long time and Tahilan didn’t take long to win the game for real, pumping himself up with a "What?" when the point landed. Leaman forced Tahilan into a pair of errors in the tiebreak and eventually won it when Tahilan hit a volley long.

Now Leaman goes into the state tournament as one of the favorites, but that doesn’t faze the freshman. He will just keep returning shots and see what happens.

"I’ll just hope for the best, I guess," Leaman said. "I still have four years ahead of me, so I am just going out there for the experience at this point."

Calvin Lee and Soohan Bong of Kalani took the boys doubles title. Mari Onoye and Kari Hashimoto of Roosevelt won the girls doubles.