Champions! Nease girls win FHSAA state tennis team title, school's first in 28 years
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
Time to raise another state championship banner at Nease — and for girls tennis, the first one for a generation.
Capping a near-perfect season on the court, Nease captured the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 3A girls tennis team championship by defeating Jensen Beach late April 29 at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs.
West Florida signee Kylie Kochis led a dominant week at No. 1 singles and doubles for the Panthers, rolling through the tournament undefeated against Tarpon Springs East Lake, Niceville and finally Jensen Beach, and she's not finished. The senior is scheduled to play April 30 for the overall individual singles title against Abra Boonswang of Tallahassee Leon.
But Kochis, a nearly-unbeatable force on the court for Nease since she arrived in Florida during the 2021-22 school year, didn't have to carry the load alone.
Juniors Blair Murray and Zofi Huszcza, sophomore Nadia Filer and freshman Olivia Jepsen all help boost the top-seeded Panthers to the second girls tennis team championship in school history.
It's girls team championship number six in FHSAA record books to add to a list of nearly 20 titles in all for Panthers coach Michael Kypriss, who previously led tennis powers at Miami Killian and Miami Dr. Krop on his way to induction into the FHSAA Hall of Fame last year.
"We've been knocking on the door for a while," Kypriss said in a remote interview following the final. "And to get this done was very gratifying."
Long girls tennis wait ends
For the Jacksonville area, Nease's triumph ends a long wait.
No Northeast Florida team had captured an FHSAA girls tennis team championship since Bolles in 2012, and no area public school had achieved the feat since Nease in 1997.
In all, Nease's victory is only the sixth all-time for any Northeast Florida school, a short list that now includes four titles for Bolles and two for Nease. Few others have even come close: Creekside made the closest approach of any other program in the last decade by placing second in 2014 and 2016, finishing behind Niceville and West Boca Raton, respectively.
The Nease boys came close to bringing home a second championship trophy for the Panthers, but lost 4-2 to eventual champion Kissimmee Osceola in the 3A semifinals. Still, for the Nease quintet of William Chaves, Charlie Neal, Austin Miskelly, Aleks Gavrancic and Tyler Miskelly, all sophomores, the deep run continued to build a promising foundation for the future.
Nease's road to the championship
The Panthers, whose only losses in the girls tennis regular season came on Feb. 18 to Lake Nona and on March 12 to Spruce Creek, steamrolled their way through the postseason to the final.
Nease recorded the maximum 21 points in District 3-3A, shut out Ridgeview in the first round of regionals and beat Ponte Vedra 4-1 in the second round, then kept the momentum rolling into Sanlando Park.
They topped Tarpon Springs East Lake 4-0 and Niceville 4-0 to set up the final against Jensen Beach, which had ousted three-time defending champion St. Thomas Aquinas in the semifinal.
After Nease and Jensen Beach split the doubles matches, the Panthers continued their perfect postseason record in singles, with Filer wrapping up the clinching point on the No. 2 line.
Finally, the wait for the Jacksonville-area girls tennis world is over.
"This team probably had some of the best chemistry I've ever had," Kypriss said, "and they won with some of the most pressure."
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: FHSAA high school tennis: Nease girls win 2025 state championship
