SURPRISE, Arizona – The UH-Hilo women’s tennis team took down Biola University 4-2 in Wednesday’s opening round of the Pacific West Conference Championships at the Surprise Tennis &Racquet Complex.
The Vulcans, seeded 10th, fell behind early after dropping the doubles points with match-losses each by scores of 6-2 to the seventh-seeded Eagles.
Biola claimed another point with a singles win on court one, but the Vulcans rallied to take four in a row for the victory.
McKenna Mountain and Casydee De Mattos’ matches went to three sets as the latter battled back from being down 1-0 to notch the match-clinching victory with a 6-2 win.
ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS
Mountain and Agustin Gentile were named to the All-Pacific West Conference Third Team for women’s and men’s tennis, respectively, as announced Wednesday evening at the PacWest Championships team banquet at the Surprise Tennis &Racquet Complex.
Mountain, a junior-transfer from University of Saint Katherine, totaled an 11-4 record in singles matches this season (2-1 at No. 2; 4-2 at No. 3; 1-0 at No. 4; 4-1 at No. 5) with highlight wins in matches against fourth-ranked HPU and 25th-ranked Midwestern State.
In his second season on the team, Gentile improved to 7-1 in singles at the No. 4 and No. 5 spots, going 4-0 at the former. The Buenos Aires-native had highlight victories in matches against No. 17 Azusa Pacific, No. 24 Azusa Pacific, No. 33 MSU Denver and No. 26 HPU.
On the men’s side, Point Loma Nazarene’s Alexander Leischner was named Player of the Year with APU’s Marko Nikoliuk (Newcomer of the Year) and Concordia University Irvine’s Alex Edmonston (Freshman of the Year) also taking top awards.
Curt Wheeler of PLNU was tabbed as Coach of the Year.
For women’s, HPU took the Player of the Year (Elodie Busson), Newcomer of the Year (Abigail Wild) and Coach of the Year (Lauren Conching) honors. CUI’s Sophie Rachor was named Freshman of the Year.
